Teaching

Syllabi are available for any of these courses if you are interested.

In seminars, I work to find ways to structure in-class time, out of class activities, and assignments to help students find a research area in which they are interested, to learn to set up and keep track of a reading list, with annotations and discussions questions to engage more deeply with those readings, and to learn the skill of carving out a research topic for an individual paper from that research. Students learn how to use discussions with each other more effectively, as a way of digging deeper into a text, and cultivating exegetical skills that only later launch into well-formed critiques. The assignments cultivate specific philosophical skills, such as crafting effective discussion/Q&A questions, using research clusters, and learning how to carve through literature to find relevant papers more efficiently.

I work with second and third year course students to work on shorter writing that is focused on a single point, precise in choice of words, and concise in expressing what they want it to and then stopping. These courses serve to move them from introductory students to The reading lists for these courses tend to describe larger arcs of discussion trajectories, so they connect into coherent discussions that become more apparent to students by the end of the term. We discuss philosophy as a kind of slow motion ongoing, discussion.

The main first year level course I currently teach is an introduction to the history and philosophy of science course. This course introduces students to key philosophical distinctions or ideas in philosophy of science, illustrating them with historical episodes. The skills I aim to cultivate here include careful readings of texts, in a different way than students have read prior to taking a philosophy course, concise and precise writing in ways that port to other topics outside of philosophy. SFU has a lot of students for whom English is an additional language, and sometimes struggle with excerpts from original texts such as Aristotle. I've started making videos of myself simply reading these passages out loud to the camera, pausing to explain certain bits, and found that students can complete the readings much, much faster, with greater engagement, when they are reading it along with a video in which the professor reads it aloud. These are (very) low production value but highly effective in terms of time investment and student benefit. [I have taught intro courses on Knowledge and Reality, and at the University of Pittsburgh, taught Morality and Medicine, and three kinds of Critical Thinking courses]

One of my favorite courses to teach was a seminar for incoming first year students. We read science fiction paired with philosophical works. They got to choose their own final projects, which included a video game showing the character has no free will; a short time travel movie; a short graphic novel about a cyborg warrior with memory problems; and discussion questions for friends to watch episodes of sci fi shows together and then use for discussion. It was incredibly fun.

I am on research leave Fall 2022 to Summer 2023.

[SFU has three major terms, each of equal length, Fall, Spring, and Summer]


Seminar courses taught: Most SFU seminars are joint MA/undergrad 4xx level

  • Time and Causation (spring 2022)

  • Research HPS (spring 2020) [graduate only: course focused on development of research skills for students already working in areas related to philosophy of science]

  • Causation, Laws, and Modality, co-taught with Jennifer Wang (fall 2019)

  • Topics in Contemporary Causation and Explanation (summer 2019)

  • History and Philosophy of Science (fall 2018) [with affiliated workshop]

  • Pro Sem (fall 2017) [professional seminar for all incoming MA students]

  • Topics in Contemporary Philosophy of Science (fall 2017 and spring 2018)

  • Causation and Explanation (spring 2017)

  • Philosophy of Time: Time from Within and Without (spring 2015)

  • Pragmatism, Metaphysics, and Philosophy of Science (spring 2014) [with affiliated workshop]

  • Explanation: Comparing Scientific, Historical, and Action Explanation (fall 2011)

  • Causation and Complexity (spring 2011)

  • Explaining Temporal Consciousness (fall 2010)

  • Extra-departmental graduate teaching: Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Department, SFU, Graduate Methods course session on Causation and Mechanisms (2016-2020)

  • Informal: Summer reading group for research project development and advancement for philosophy of science students. Group is run without official credit, for students to cultivate collaborative research skills on their own projects; attendance ranges from 3 to 9 students over summer terms (2018-2021)

Undergraduate courses taught: see seminars above for 4xx level

  • Phil 341: Philosophy of Science (spring 2021; spring 2019; spring 2017; fall 2016; fall 2014; spring 2012; fall 2009)

  • Phil 302: Causation (fall 2012)

  • Phil 302: Philosophy of Time (spring 2010)

  • Phil 203: Metaphysics (spring 2017; fall 2014; fall 2012; spring 2012)

  • Phil 201: Epistemology (fall 2010; spring 2010)

  • Phil 144: Introduction to Philosophy of Science (fall 2021; fall 2020; fall 2019; spring 2015; spring 2014; spring 2011)

  • Phil 100W: Knowledge and Reality (fall 2011)

  • FASS First Freshman Seminar: Science Fiction and Philosophy (fall 2017)