Teaching

Please email me for the most recent version of my teaching portfolio.

The empirical methods and theoretical frameworks of political science can be used to contextualize current events, improve one’s citizenship, or navigate a career in politics, policy or advocacy. In particular, I believe that an education in political science is ideal for teaching critical thinking, argumentation, written and oral communication skills, data literacy, and collaboration.

However, these tools are difficult to acquire and their application in day-to-day politics is often not obvious. So, my first goal as a teacher is to cultivate students’ motivation to engage with the hard work it takes to learn to think systematically about politics.  I do this in three ways.  First, by making my course assignments immediately relevant to my students’ daily lives.  Second, by strategically modulating my emphasis on basic understanding of course materials versus application of insights from those materials. Third, by fostering an open and collaborative learning environment where students’ personal experiences, and the diversity thereof, are valued pedagogical resources.

At Michigan, I have served as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) for a survey course in American politics, as well as upper-level courses in American political parties and political persuasion. I have also served as the primary instructor for a graduate-level skills course, training new graduate students in the use of STATA, R, and LaTeX to help reduce technological barriers to success in the graduate program. At the ICPSR Summer Program, I have served as teaching assistant for a course on inferential network analysis.

My teaching interests are in American Politics, Legislative Politics, the American Policy Process, Interest Groups, Persuasion and Advocacy Strategies, and Research Design and Methods.