Teaching

I am an award-winning educator who is passionate about pedagogy with a focus on participatory learning in an inclusive and welcoming environment. Key to creating this environment is the employment of universal design strategies. My courses are designed with accessibility in mind, from the course syllabus to the final (typically scaffolded) assignment. Strategies I implement in every class include uploading slides early, providing closed-captioning during my lectures and on all audio content, tagging images used in class with alt-text, using proper document design to ensure accessibility, flexible attendance policies, providing multiple modes of credit, de-emphasizing exams, and encouraging student-to-student accountability and assistance. Beyond accessibility needs, my classes are engaging and highly participatory, collaborative, and focused on nurturing critical thinking and civic engagement skills. 

My teaching interests include American politics, race & ethnicity, political behavior, political psychology, political communication, and campaigns & elections. As a broadly trained Americanist, I can (and do) offer courses in American institutions as well as behavior. I am also experienced and interested in teaching methods courses, such as introductory quantitative research methods, advanced research methods, research design, survey research methods, experimental methods, and network analysis. 

At Grinnell College, I offer courses in Race and Ethnic Politics in the United States (POL 295), Political Psychology (POL 295), Marginalized Identities in the United States (POL 395), Political Tolerance (POL 395), and Introduction to Political Science (POL 101).

I have been the instructor of record for Survey Research Methodology (PSCI 3155) in Fall 2020, Summer 2021, Fall 2021, and Fall 2022. In the Fall of 2020, I had the opportunity to utilize funds from the LeRoy Keller Center to lead my students through conducting original survey research, by doing survey experiments on Mechanical Turk. The students in this course presented their findings to the department, including a discussion of their research design, analysis, and conclusions. Please see below for recordings of these presentations. Additionally, student reviews of this course are available here.

I have also been the instructor of record for Quantitative Research Methods in Summer 2020,  Political Psychology in Summer 2022 and Fall 2023, Introduction to American Politics in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024, and Congress and the Presidency in Spring 2024.   

Additionally, I have been a Graduate Teaching Assistant, with recitation, for Introduction to American Politics (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2021) and Quantitative Research Methods (Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2022). I have graded for Advanced Political Data Analysis (Spring 2020), Scope and Methods of Political Science (graduate level) (Fall 2019),  and Strategy and Politics (Spring 2023). 

I have completed a certification in college teaching from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Colorado Boulder, which included a semester-length course in teaching political science, over 20 workshops, 2 peer-reviews, a faculty review, and a reflection packet. Through this process, I learned valuable techniques to improve my pedagogy, and fostered my own teaching philosophy. 

In December of 2022, I won the Graduate Part-Time Instructor of Excellence Award at the University of Colorado. I was selected to win this competitive award due to my commitment to inclusive pedagogy, my far-above-average teaching evaluations, and my creativity in the classroom.