Teaching Statement

     Fostering understanding and connection by allowing a multiplicity of perspectives lies at the center of both my literary research and my teaching practice. My research focuses on the collective nature of perception in literature, investigating the ways in which different groups, be they of different social origins or even different species, live in different perceptual worlds. Similarly, teaching language and culture is an invitation for students to step into a different perceptual world from the one they grew up in. Giving my students the confidence to embrace new perceptual lenses is my overarching goal throughout all teaching contexts. During my PhD in the Carolina-Duke program for German Studies, I have designed and taught extensively as an instructor of record, teaching beginner and advanced German, first-year students and doctoral students, online and in person, at Duke and at UNC, small and large classes. I have also had the chance to TA for a large interdisciplinary class that explored the nature of the universe and what it means to be human. Whether discussing grammar or the origins of life, my focus is on cultivating students’ confidence to step out of their comfort zone and to be open to concepts foreign to their own worldview.

    When designing teaching materials, I involve my students in the process whenever possible. For both Advance/Intermediate German Conversation Class and Introductory German for Graduate Students in Engineering, I had the freedom to design the class from start to finish without the constraint of grades as they were both pass/fail. I tasked my students to come to class on the first day with ideas of what they wanted to learn in the class and based my syllabus on their ideas. (V1, V2) As co-creators of the courses, my students were agents in their own experience from the first day of the semester to the last. I also designed a syllabus for a German literature course entitled ‘Literature and the Senses’ within the framework of a course on Syllabus Design. In my conception of the course, I sought to bridge more traditional learning with an emphasis on experience and community by integrating both theoretical readings and concrete sensorial experience. To bring the senses into the classroom from the first day, each student is asked to bring one object to the first class meeting whose sensorial qualities are special to them, either on a personal or cultural level and to present it to their peers. (A1, K1) 

     Key to my approach in facilitating learning is relating new and unfamiliar topics to familiar contexts to avoid overly abstract knowledge. In my Advanced/Intermediate German Conversation Class this took the form of teaching about the German political parties and current debates and prompting students to compare these concerns with those in American politics. They were surprised to see that many of the debates between parties taking place in Germany were similar to those in the United States, despite vastly different political landscapes. (K1) I have facilitated conversations not only around politics but also religion, history, fashion, and art, encouraging students to share openly about their own knowledge and experiences. I approach these cultural topics with respect for all backgrounds, beliefs and identities, and integrate them into relevant cultural frameworks. One challenge I faced in Introductory German for Graduate Students in Engineering was breaching the subject of Dresden’s “Nazi emergency”, a surge in right-wing activity in the city in which my diverse set of students would be doing their summer internships. To give context to the contemporary situation, I designed a class session on the history of East and West Germany and what remains of the divide today. This allowed my students to historically contextualize today’s socio-political realities of the East-German city of Dresden, while offering a platform for open discussion. (A2, V4, K2) In this class whose aim was to introduce graduate students to German and Germany in just one session a week over the course of one semester, I made use of maps to allow students to instantly visualize the topic of the day. This was useful both in political topics for visualizing voting patterns by region but also for gaining an understanding of linguistic diversity both within Germany and in relation to dialects in neighboring countries. To this end, I had students explore the Atlas-Alltagssprache website (https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de) in small groups, a website which maps the use of different variants of the same word in German-speaking Europe. I asked each group to present a few words to the class along with the geographic distribution of their variants. Through this simple exercise, students quickly grasped the difficulty of mapping regional dialects along clean linguistic borders, learning instead the messiness that is oral language use. (K4)

     Fostering a sense of community is what makes open dialogue possible in the classroom. The importance of community in the classroom became apparent to me in the context of an emergency that I lived through with my students during my first ever week of teaching. My 101 class at UNC Chapel Hill was interrupted by an alert of an “armed man on campus”. To this day I am in awe of my students who worked together to follow protocol and keep everyone safe, sitting for hours on the floor in silence. Though I had not been trained for this type of emergency, I created a calm environment, the positive impact of which was corroborated by a parent letter thanking me for my leadership. Other students have commented on my ability to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom in my teaching evaluations (see below). That day taught me how much of a teacher’s role is to lead by example, which has made me more aware of my responsibility to model calmness and joy whenever I can and has taught me that this can make more of a difference to my students’ wellbeing than the topic of the day. (A4)

     In the classroom, I adhere to the idea of generous authority, a term I learned from Priya Parker’s book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (2018). The term refers to the power of any host (in this case of a teacher) to give structure to a gathering, one which will allow all participants to flourish. One example of how I implement generous authority in the classroom is by asking students in language classes, especially ones that meet often, not to use technology in the classroom and to rotate seats every unit. These rules are designed to serve the students, meaning that exceptions are made to accommodate student needs as well as according to the activities of the day. One instance in which I adjusted the rules for a particular student was in German 101 and 102 when a student of mine had accommodations that allowed her to take notes on her laptop and to stay put at a desk near the door where she felt more comfortable, while others moved around her. My priority is always to establish a relationship of trust and mutual respect with my students. (A4, V1, V2) 

     This trust extends to rules concerning assessment, late work and the use of AI. I seek to have clarity around these issues, by going through the important points in class with my students and encouraging a discussion. My philosophy when it comes to assessment is to have a clear rubric for each assignment. The experience of being a TA for a large class that had no rubric for grading essays and exams alike taught me the importance of always having a rubric. While essay grading has a subjective element to it, having a rubric is the best policy for coming as close as possible to fair grading. I also have clear rules around points deducted for late work, while leaving room for extensions when needed. (A3, K5) When it comes to AI, I encourage students to use the tool at the beginning and end of their assignments only. My students have shared with me the value of AI in refining their arguments when writing term papers. One student told me about his process of arguing with AI to pinpoint the weakest points in his argument. I also believe AI can be a useful tool to proofread an essay once it is written. However, I ask my students not to use AI to write their essays for them. When teaching more writing intensive classes in the future, I will experiment both with assignments designed around the use of AI and with in-class essay writing to make sure my students improve their writing and critical thinking skills away from AI tools. 

     The classroom is part of a larger community ecosystem that I seek to nurture. This begins with observing my colleagues teach and having them observe me, which has always been central to my practice. It is the norm in the Carolina-Duke Program in German Studies to do so at least once a semester. I also completed the Certificate for College Teaching, which entails taking part in a Teaching Triangle, in which I was paired with PhD students in documentary filmmaking and biology, both of which I observed teach and who observed me in turn. (A5, V5) Being welcomed into the classroom in other departments made me more aware of the emphasis on community which exists within the German departments I have taught at. The impact of community (or lack thereof) in a department is tangible in the classroom in the small interactions before, during and after class that go missing when community is not present. (V3, K3) I also consider my dedication to service work for my department part and parcel of my commitment to teaching as it connects me with the wider community of students and beyond. I have worked closely with departmental staff on events that bring together undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty as Language Corridor Assistant and have worked as a mouthpiece for graduate student needs as Graduate Student Representative in German Studies. One of my favorite parts of being a PhD student has been the engagement with all spheres of the academic community: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff. This love of community involvement is something I am keen to bring with me to my future position. (A4)

           In the future I look forward to teaching more literature-focused classes, starting with Literature and the Senses based on the syllabus I designed and a course on Women Writers Throughout History, an under-taught and under-researched topic that is central to my own interests. More generally, I hope to continue to learn new ways to create community and to foster new ways of seeing through linguistic and cultural acquisition. I seek to extend this exploration beyond the classroom by interning at cultural institutions to learn about other ways cultural knowledge is shared outside of the university context. These insights will help me bring culture into the classroom as well as to bring the classroom into other cultural contexts.