Teaching Overview
My teaching interests, like my scholarly studies, focus on early modern (1500-1800) literature, film studies and visual culture, research methodologies, and digital humanities. Over the past eleven years, I have taught more than 1000 students, in a notable array of classes--from first-year composition and LT-1 core courses to writing intensive courses that double as LT-2 core courses, from upper-level majors courses and electives to graduate courses, Honors tutorials, and independent studies. Please see my CV for a complete list of courses taught, and browse the interactive charts above for data relevant to this promotion application. The data has been drawn from end-of-term student surveys and the university catalog. Raw tabulations are available here. Raw course enrollment information is available here. Note that the above charts are interactive.
In all of my courses, I offer students variegated opportunities to explore their interests and develop their critical thinking skills while amassing a quantity of concrete historical, contextual information. Typically, my courses involve a combination of focused class discussion, small group work (including writing workshops), quizzes and in-class activities, lectures, reading aloud, student presentations, non-traditional projects, and co-curricular events both on-and off-campus (film screenings, library visits, theater outings, museum events). I have also incorporated (for advanced or writing-focused courses) full-class final projects in lieu of exams. My teaching brings a technologically-minded pedagogy to traditional humanities subjects and methods.
My formal writing assignments range, at the undergraduate level, from brief two-page essays to extended eight/ten-page essays, often incorporating targeted research and sometimes functioning as the basis for a more technologically-oriented project, like an informational video. Informal writing assignments include letters to peers including workshop draft commentary, personal writing reflections, mid-term evaluations, journal assignments, and discussion board posts. In all of my content-based courses, I incorporate midterm and final exams that include variegated kinds of questions, ranging from matching and short answer to essays and close readings. I routinely develop new assignments and projects, or refine existing ones, both to keep the material fresh for myself and to elicit more targeted, purposeful responses from students. To stimulate creativity and interest, I frequently ask students to choose from a range of possible project options.
Final student surveys are generally strong, averaging at 3.83 out of 5.0 for perceived overall quality of learning. In particular, students single out my energy, enthusiasm, and passion as strengths, and a number of students report enjoying the readings--to their own surprise. Students tend to find pacing and workload requirements challenging. I have worked hard to overcome being perceived as "harsh," which is particularly problematic for female faculty, by using rubrics to help communicate requirements and encouraging revisions.
While I am overall happy with my teaching, I strive always to grow as a teacher. For the next two to four years, my goal is to substantially rethink my pedagogy to incorporate what I have learned about active, project-based learning. In particular, I have grown to believe that the formal written essay is a pedagogical tool of the past, and writing--as well as critical thinking and detailed analysis--can be developed in many unexpected ways. Please see my teaching philosophy statement for more information.
