Teaching

When teaching comparative politics, my primary goal is to challenge students to view details of individual country cases not as idiosyncratic pieces of information, but rather as evidence that confirms or challenges theoretical propositions that help explain trends in the political world that surrounds them. I seek to guide students towards this goal through activities that are attentive to different phases of learning, starting with knowing/remembering and moving up through understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and ending with creating. I use this hierarchy of learning tasks in two main ways: 1) to consciously inform the way I approach the teaching of complex concepts and theories and 2) to more clearly establish what knowledge and skills I want the students to walk away with at the end of each class session and at the conclusion of the course in general.

My teaching philosophy reflects my belief that good teachers need to be deeply engaged with current scholarship. I strongly feel that mentoring and teaching are important components of academic work and do not see them as separate from research. I have found that teaching pushes me to revisit and reconsider arguments and theories and arrive at new interpretations of literature, often as a result of student comments and reflections during class or office hours.

My commitment to teaching has been honored with a 2011 Dean's Prize for Distinguished Teaching, a competitive award given by the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University.

In student evaluations at Saint Lawrence, I consistently receive high scores for overall teaching quality, and student comments indicate that I stimulate class discussions, am well organized and prepared for class and that I am knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter. Please see my past teaching evaluations attached at the bottom of this page.

Course Offerings:

Comparative Politics: International Relations:

Introduction to Comparative Politics (syllabus below) Introduction to International Relations

African Politics (syllabus below) Human Security (syllabus below)

Alternative Justice Systems around the World (syllabus below) Africa & The World

Political Institutions in the Developing World (syllabus below)

Foreign Aid & Humanitarian Assistance (syllabus below)

Gender & Politics across the World

Democracy & Democratization

Social Movements & Contentious Politics

Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment