TEACHING
I am committed to the success of underrepresented students pursuing higher education. Creating an open and inclusive environment in the classroom where students feel comfortable engaging with other students and with the professor and—importantly—seeking help when needed is critical to effective teaching. In my classroom, I do this by addressing power and privilege from the outset, discussing strategies for engaging in tough conversations, and challenging students to open their minds to new ways of seeing.
I have experience teaching undergraduates at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley and graduate students at the University of Chicago and UCSF. Courses I have taught include advanced qualitative research methods courses, social theory, senior seminars in sociology, introduction to sociology (health and society emphasis), and graduate seminars in special topics. I welcome the opportunity to teach substantive and methods courses in sociology, science and technology studies, as well as interdisciplinary social sciences.
COURSES TAUGHT
University of Chicago
Self, Culture, and Society, Winter 2023, 2024
Course Description: This course is part of the Self, Culture, and Society Core Sequence in the Division of Social Sciences. This is Part II of the course, in which students investigate canonical approaches to understanding society and the individual through the writings of Durkheim, Freud, Beauvoir and Fanon. Particular attention is paid to symbolic representation, social forces and their bodily inscription, emotion, the construction of the self, and the role of the unconscious in shaping thought and behavior. We will examine various forms of domination and social structures, and the tensions that are created between such structures and notions of individual agency and potential for social change. Additionally, students are introduced to contemporary theorists to surface critiques of the social theorists we engage and draw connections to our contemporary moment.
Course Description: The principal goal of this seminar is to introduce students to scholarship that interrogates technologies used to produce knowledge about and intervene on (and in) human bodies. Throughout the seminar, we will question the construction of technologies, the ways in which particular technologies have changed understandings of the human condition, how technologies shape individual and collective identities, and the interests and values built into their very design. We will interrogate how technologies incorporate, and may reinforce, ideas about human difference. And we will delve into the political economy of technologies, questioning why and how some gain traction, in the forms of federal and private investment and become elevated as cultural icons, while others remain at the margins.
Course description: This seminar explores the
ontologies of illness, asking questions about the conditions under which new
illnesses emerge and are rendered knowable. We will examine the ways in which
illnesses and diagnoses are enacted, made visible, and managed through
diagnostic and medical practices, social practices, and in scientific and legal
arenas. We will center questions such as: how do we know when we are ill? How and
when are symptoms and illnesses validated, invalidated, and, at times,
stigmatized by clinicians, social networks, and society? How have technologies
changed the way we recognize, treat, and experience states of health and
illness? We will draw on anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and science and
technology studies scholarship, as well as documentaries. Students will conduct
a quarter long research project on a condition of their choosing.
University of California, Berkeley (UCB) - Department of Sociology (all undergraduate)
Sociology 108 (Spring 2020): Advanced Methods: In-Depth Interviewing
Course description: This course trains students in how to carry out a qualitative, interview-based research project. In the process, students learn how to develop research questions and determine the appropriate methods to explore them, with specific attention to qualitative research. Because the focus of this course is interviewing, this course teaches students how to identify and recruit people to interview, how to prepare a comprehensive set of interview questions, how to conduct interviews, how to address issues that can arise while conducting interviews, how to code and analyze interviews, and how to present one's findings at the end of a project. A keystone of this course is writing a sociological research paper using interview data that you gather for this class.
Sociology 190 (Fall 2020, 2021): Seminar and Research in Sociology: Health, Biomedicine, and Inequality
Course description: This course explores the social and political aspects of health, illness, and the ways we produce biomedical and public health knowledge. In recent months, the global coronavirus pandemic has highlighted pervasive health inequalities that inundate the US, as well as challenges with our biomedical research infrastructures. These disparities and challenges, however, are not novel. Why are health outcomes often stratified along racial and class lines? How do various intersections of identity - such as gender, sexuality, race, age, and religion - make some groups more vulnerable to health risk and disease? Why do we, as a society, invest in particular health interventions over others? And why do some groups have better and more access to new innovations in biomedicine? We will cover sociological perspectives on health inequities and inequalities, the production of biomedical knowledge, and our current biomedical moment. This course draws on frameworks from medical sociology, as well as science and technology studies. Additionally, it utilizes popular media and documentaries sources.
Sociology N1H (2018, 2019): Introduction to Sociology (Health and Society Emphasis)
Course description: The primary objective of this introduction to sociology course is to introduce students to the major theories, concepts, and substantive areas of sociology with an emphasis on health and medicine. Sociology is the study of the social-social life, change, identity, and institutions. In 2015, the Association of American Medical Colleges deemed sociology to be such an important lens for understanding health that 30% of the social and behavioral section of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is focused on sociological material. In this course, readings, lectures, and assignments have been selected with the needs of pre-health professional students in mind, consisting of three thematic units that focus on social structures and institutions, stratification and inequality, and social change. Throughout the course, we also consider the diverse research methods used in sociological research. This course is open to all majors and there are no prerequisites.
University of California, San Francisco - Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (graduate level)
S212B - Contemporary Social Theory (with Kristen Harknett), Winter 2022
Course Description: The principal goal of
this graduate seminar is to introduce students to a range of social theorists
whose bodies of work span the twentieth century, and whose ideas and
theoretical projects have fundamentally influenced and transformed the practice
of sociology. Any such course of necessity will be an incomplete survey; those
theorists who have been included were chosen because their works became central
touchstones for how sociological thinking has unfolded over the course of the
last century, and their theories of society continue to be relevant for
analyzing our current condition and epoch.
S215 - Dissertation Proposal Development Seminar, 2019
Course description: The purpose of this course is to help students prepare for writing their dissertation proposals. This course provides a structured environment for phd students to make concrete progress planning their dissertation proposals and timelines as well as a supportive forum to discuss the process, means of assessing progress, and challenges common to this phase of the PhD program. Course sessions are student-centered and focus on skills helpful in completing a successful dissertation proposal.
S237 - Qualitative Research Proposal Preparation Seminar, 2018, 2019
Course description: This seminar is intended to help first year doctoral students with the initial stages of designing their qualitative research pilot project. S237 is designed to be a supportive and informative environment for student-to-student discussion during the planning and writing of the qualitative research proposal (which is carried out in Yr 2). In this course, students begin designing their research proposals. Class sessions are focused on discussion of progress and challenges in the research planning process. Meetings are student-centered and focus on skills helpful in developing a successful pilot project proposal and preparing for the qualitative research and ethics courses.
Syllabi for all courses available upon request.