Goals

Recommendations for Improvement, 2024-2025

In November 2024, my Tenure Review Committee provided several suggestions for improvement. I subsequently addressed each of these in the following ways.

1. Broaden the "Al Policy" to include other forms of Al, such as Grammarly and Quillbot: Per the syllabi provided in this portfolio, my AI policy now reads: "The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT is prohibited. Platforms like Grammarly and QuillBot may be used to improve your writing, but not to generate answers to Discussion Boards."

2. Clarify parameters of late work policy to address emergencies: I updated all of my syllabi to include the following: "Out of fairness to all students in the class, I cannot accept late work submitted without prior approval by me. In cases of last-minute emergencies, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your situation. In cases of severe illness, be prepared to provide a doctor’s note."

3. His syllabus should include resources for students: Veterans Office, Library services, Food Avail: My syllabi now include links to LACCD's "Know Your Rights" page regarding federal immigration enforcement actions, DSPS, the Library, Basic Needs, the Dream Resource Center, the Health and Wellness Center, TimelyCare, the Career Center, the Child Development Center, and the Veterans Office. Professor Miryan Noguiera also kindly passed along her Canvas page listing resources available to students. I now include her page in all of my courses' Canvas shells.

4. Be sure not to violate copyright law with the inclusion of on line resources: I conferred with librarian Ryan Edwards and Professor Noguiera regarding copyright law as it applies to the non-textbook materials that I assign as readings. I now offer students either short excerpts from the texts—as in the case of Black Feminist Thought—or open-source materials—as in the case of Penn State University's free publication of Democracy in America.

Goals, 2024-2025

1. Refine my Sociology of Gender course: Through my second year participating in Climate Across the Curriculum, I "climatized" my Gender course by adding what I think is a thorough and compelling "Gender and Climate Change" module. I ask students to engage with data and insights from research documents produced by UN Women, UN Climate Change, and the Global Gender and Climate Alliance. 

2. POCR: I did not complete POCR training. I realized that much of what I hoped to learn was available through public posts by Instructure (the developer of Canvas), YouTube tutorials, LACCD pages, coding generously shared by Cyrus Helf at LACCD's Office of Student Success and Professors Setka and Noguiera, and other resources.

3. New course offerings: As noted in the Service section of my portfolio, Professor Lanoix and I worked to secure Curriculum Committee approval of a new Popular Culture course (SOC 086) in Sociology. I am eager to see this course offered in fall 2026 once the necessary articulation protocols have been completed. In spring 2026, I will also be teaching American Social Problems for the first time.

Goals, 2025-2026

1. Finish enhancement of Introduction of Sociology: As discussed in my Pedagogy section, I have been working to enrich my Introduction to Sociology courses with a focused incorporation of primary texts that complement the textbook and the COR. After experimenting this semester with Tocqueville's Democracy in America, I intend to incorporate Hobbes's Leviathan, Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, and The Federalist Papers in new discussion-based modules in spring 2026. As one example of a possible discussion prompt related to Hobbes, I would ask students the following: "The Hobbes excerpt offers a theory about innate qualities of the human condition. First, name at least two principles of this theory. Then, discuss how Hobbes’s own identity is implicated in this perspective." I will also place these texts into dialogue with our three major sociological paradigms: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. I could ask, as an example, about how we might characterize Du Bois as a conflict theorist and how he expands, develops, or even contradicts core tenets of Marxian thought.

2. Analysis of course data: Vice President Jeff Archibald has emphasized a data-driven approach to understanding what works and what doesn't in our course offerings. Since I am now about to complete my fourth semester at West, I have decent sample sizes to analyze in terms of success and retention in my classes. With support from Dean Artour Aslanian and informed by the Program Review process in which I participated, I would like to complete a kind of deep dive into my course data in order to detect trends and better understand what I can do better.

3. Presentation at a research conference: Within the next year, I would like to present the climate-aligned research I have completed on the work of Los Angeles-based artist Sam Shoemaker. I have submitted my project, titled "The Climate Resilience of Human-Fungi Networks," for presentation at the British Sociological Association's 2026 conference at the University of Manchester. (Notices of acceptance will be distributed by November 17.)  In my research, I contextualize my analysis of Shoemaker's work in three areas of inquiry. First, using concepts from actor-network theory, I extend Shoemaker’s speculation about collaborations with fungi to ask if such ties to non-human biomaterial offer new ways for thinking about climate resilience. Second, drawing on the work of the late Harrison C. White, I am interested in artists’ careers as fertile focal points for innovation emerging from the experimental disposition of urban creative networks. Lastly, the open-source nature of Shoemaker’s work is important as a means of knowledge-sharing and community-building, a key yet occasionally overlooked theme in the sociology of climate change.