Teaching

Sample Syllabi:

• Philosophy of Law, Fall 2025

• Introduction to Critical Thinking, Fall 2025

• Introduction to Contemporary Confucian Moral and Political Philosophy, Spring 2025

• Cultural Appropriation, Spring 2025

• Philosophy of Games and Sport, Fall 2024

• Contemporary Moral Issues, Spring 2024

Topics On Which I Am Prepared to Teach:

• General Introduction to Philosophy

• Moral Philosophy

• Social and Political Philosophy

• Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

• Contemporary Confucian Moral and Political Philosophy

• Philosophy of Games and Sport

• Environmenal Philosophy

• Philosophy of Race

• Philosophy of Law

A Note on Promoting Diversity in Philosophy:

I am a first-generation university student raised by Cambodian refugees. This background has shaped my commitment to helping academic philosophy become more accessible to populations that are traditionally underrepresented in the discipline. Through pursuing a career in academic philosophy, I have firsthand experience of factors that discourage disadvantaged racial minorities from studying philosophy at the university level. I pair this experience with my research interests to implement an approach to teaching that facilitates exposing such students to the opportunities for personal and professional fulfillment offered by studying philosophy. That approach involves selecting required readings, designing assignments, and establishing classroom practices that are culturally relevant and sustaining. For example, I try to assign readings that spotlight philosophical traditions of racial and ethnic minority groups, such as scholarship addressing climate justice from an Indigenous North American philosophical perspective or poverty by drawing from a African American political philosophical tradition. When my assigned readings do not explicitly foreground such traditions, I especially make sure to encourage students to consider whether those readings overlook important insights that tend to be more salient for minorities (e.g., does an author's argument that a particular political scheme increases freedom overlook “Third World" feminist conceptions of freedom?).

I also always seek to make students comfortable with informally interacting with me outside of class, such that they are emboldened to seek extra advice about how to get the most out of a philosophy education. One way that I do so is that I structure my classes so that upon completing them, students will have chatted phlosophy with me many times in settings besides the traditional classroom. I think such a practice is especially salutary for first-generation students who are racial/ethnic minorities, because such students are among the ones who are least likely to seek interactions with faculty outside of class. In fact, one reason I was motivated as an undergraduate to frequent office hours is that I was informed that taking advantage of the educational benefits of doing so is something that students with my sort of background tend not to do. By regularly meeting with faculty outside of class, I was luckily received much one-on-one informal mentoring from them. That mentoring skyrocketed my confidence about being able to attain a career in academic philosophy, and I aim to ensure that I provide it to undergrads with backgrounds like mine who are interested in studying philosophy in a sustained way.