I am intensely enthusiastic about the material that I study and that enthusiasm animates my teaching. As an educator and historian, I am committed to engaging my students in the transformative study of groups that have been historically marginalized and underrepresented.

I strive to facilitate encounters across communities and cultures with two complementary learning goals: 1) to encourage students to cultivate an appreciation for cultural diversity and 2) to be responsible for their own intellectual growth. I apply these objectives to my classroom, leveraging the diversity of my students to encourage multiple perspectives on course material. I deploy my privilege and power as an instructor to amplify my students’ voices and experiences to advocate for their success. They learn about the contingency of past and present to envision a malleable future. 

Most of the courses I teach are an opportunity for students to learn about the modern history and experiences of diverse groups from the Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. The methods I use to encourage student engagement are tailored to promote collaborative discussions about gender, race, religion, and class in historical narratives. Using music, film, art, and literature, my classroom becomes an inclusive space where students explore the many debates, contradictions, and perspectives of historical research by questioning the boundaries of their own knowledge concerning different people, places, and the past. I do not expect my students to become historians, but the skills gained in my classroom benefit every student by offering useful exercises in thinking critically about social constructs, cultural differences, and empathy. They also develop strong communication skills (writing and public speaking) that serve as a foundation for professional advancement. Each time I enter the classroom, I look forward to the mutual learning experience ahead.

Since August of 2021 as an inaugural Teaching Fellow for the Civic, Liberal and Global Education Program at Stanford University, I have served as one of the primary instructors for the keystone course, Why College? Your Education and the Good Life. In this course we explore the history, practice, and rationales for a liberal education by putting canonical texts in conversation with more recent works. We consider the relevance of liberal education to all areas of study, from STEM to the arts, and its relations to future careers. We also examine the central place that the idea of “the good life” has historically enjoyed in theories of liberal education. Selected course reading material includes the following: W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk; Tstitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions; Krishnamurti, Think on These Things; Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing; Zadie Smith, Some Notes on Attunement.

I have also served as a teaching fellow for the following courses:

Design that Understands Us. Under the leadership of Professor Ge Wang, this course examined the nature, purpose, and meaning of design in human life, and asks the fundamental questions of “what is design?”, “why do we do it?”, “how do design, technology, and society shape one another?”, and “how can we design to resist, reform, and revolutionize?”. We consider two main models of design: need-based design (as we are often taught), and values-based design (that helps us flourish as human beings). As students learn about various aesthetic and ethical frameworks and a fundamental language of design, the goal is to sharpen their critical tools for analyzing and conceptualizing design. From everyday objects such as media, tools, toys, games, and musical instruments, to aspirations for artificial intelligence and virtual reality, students learn how to more clearly and critically view our technology-drenched human world—and to exercise their ethical and artful imagination to re-imagine better worlds.

Environmental Sustainability: Global Predicaments and Possible Solutions. How do we balance the benefits of industrialization against environmental justice? Is technological innovation a reason for optimism about the future of the environment? What do we lose as the biodiversity of the planet declines? This course engages with the big questions around the future of environmental sustainability from a global perspective, touching on climate change, energy, natural resources, waste, and technology, as well as the human impacts. Students will not only consider how global citizenship is informed by a responsibility towards the environment, but will have the opportunity to develop a practical solution to one of the key sustainability challenges.