Teaching

My research on grassroots social struggle is intimately intertwined with my work as a teacher, popular educator, and activist. I am committed to teaching the use of sociological perspectives to address pressing social problems in whatever venue or social space, though formal classroom settings are particularly conducive to harnessing sociological knowledge for thinking and seeking social change.

To this end, all of my classes are heavy on theory, history, and intersectional lenses applied to contemporary empirics. There is much reading and writing outside of class time, and much discussing within. My classes are founded on recognition of every individual’s dignity and situated knowledge, and the idea that we all do, and should do more (quality) theory in our everyday lives. I harness the sociological imagination to both demonstrate the structural determinants of social behavior, and to push students to reflect on their own lives. Students come to recognize the sociological elements of their individual paths to the present, their roles in shaping local and global processes, and how they may more intentionally forge paths into the future.