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Course Design
In addition to equipping each student with essential research, writing, and presentation skills, I make it a course practice to engage and collaborate with student organisations, alumni in academia, academic colleagues, and local community groups and organisations. This offers students a network of peers, mentors, and professionals who are actively engaged in this area of academic interest. I am also experimenting with assignments that encourage students to see themselves as collaborators in a longer-term project. These have included organising conference panels and symposia for my students, as well as providing them the opportunity to take up roles as contributors and copyeditors in our course zines and book volumes.
Do click on the photos below to see readings, events, reflections, and student evaluations from each course.
Thesis Supervision and Independent Studies
Undergraduate Supervision. At Yale-NUS College, I supervise senior capstones, Independent Reading and Research (IRR) modules, and Independent Language Study and Research (ILSR) modules (Sanskrit, Pāli, Ancient Greek).
Graduate Supervision. As a faculty member of the National University of Singapore's Buddhist Studies Group, I supervise Independent Studies and am happy to serve as an external advisor on dissertation committees. Do see our Graduate Studies page for more details.
Capstone Supervision
Goodbye Übermensch, Hello Kitty: Playing with the Limits of Philosophy. Chloe Ang Wei Ting, Yale-NUS College and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (AY23/24 Sem 1 & 2). Areas: Aesthetics of Play; Chinese Philosophy (Zhuangzi); Nietzsche. [Video Link]
Tesha Sengupta, Yale-NUS College (AY24/25 Sem 1). Areas: Analytic Metaphysics; Grounding.
Tan Jun Hao Mark, Yale-NUS College (AY24/25 Sem 2). Areas: Buddhist Philosophy (Nāgārjuna); Medieval Philosophy (Saint Thomas Aquinas).
Independent Studies
YIR3301 Dōgen in Practice, Siddharth Chintalacheruvu, Yale-NUS College (AY23/24 Sem 2)
PH5660 Meaning in Indian Buddhist Philosophy, Shibukawa Youhei, NUS Philosophy M.A. (AY24/25 Sem 1)
Courses Taught as a Graduate Instructor
At the University of Michigan, I was the Graduate Instructor for the following courses. Do click on the blue 'Evaluations' button to see my compiled student evaluations.
PHIL101 Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL110 Introduction to Ethics
PHIL359 Law and Philosophy
PHIL288 Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
PHIL289 Early Modern Philosophy
Virtual PHIL 288
Just a few weeks before the end of the semester, PHIL288: Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy was interrupted by the start of the COVID pandemic. As students struggled to adjust to their new circumstances, the course moved to an asynchronous format. Below are some Youtube lectures and resources that I filmed and edited for students in order to get them to the finish line under these stressful circumstances. The videos were released once a week, and included traditional lecturing, short dramatic sketches, discussion highlight reels, and detailed exam guides.
Week One: Republic V-VII
Welcome to Virtual PHIL 288! Our first weekly video is on the longer side, because we have three lessons' worth of material to cover and the essay question to discuss. Do remember to leave your comments on your sections' discussion board on Canvas. See 8:54 for my introduction to Republic VII.
Week Two: The Parmenides; Introduction to Aristotle
We begin with a highlight reel of discussion board comments, then proceed to a discussion of the forms in the Parmenides. Start at 7:39 of the video for the beginning of the discussion on the forms, 8:42 for the Parmenides sketch, and 11:00 for a short introduction to Aristotle.
Week Three: Final Exam Preparation (Part 1)
Aristotle gives the following account of a "nature": "...a nature is a certain starting-point and cause of changing and resting in that to which it belongs primarily and as such, i.e., not coincidentally" (192b21-24). Explain what he means by this statement, and why he thinks that a cat has a nature of this sort, while a bed does not.
Week Four: Final Exam Preparation (Part 2)
In De Anima II.1, Aristotle says: "If, then, we must state something that is common to every soul, it must be that it is the first actuality of a natural instrumental body" (412b4-5). Explain this definition, and show how Aristotle's examples of the axe and the eye are supposed to illustrate it. Given Aristotle's conception of the soul, does it make sense to think that the soul could survive the destruction of the body? Why or why not?
Week Five: Final Exam Preparation (Part 3)
How does Aristotle conceive of the difference between theoretical reasoning and practical reasoning? How does his view on this matter affect who he thinks can profitably study ethics? Some have thought that Aristotle's position ultimately entails that his ethical theory is not based on reason. Do you agree? Explain why or why not.
Language Tutoring
From 2017-2018, I was the Classical Language tutor for the Yale-NUS Languages programme, where I tutored our Sanskrit and Ancient Greek students. Some of the courses I taught for include:
YIL1201S Beginning Sanskrit
YIL2201S Intermediate Sanskrit
YLG1201 Beginning Ancient Greek
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