Teaching

I have a passion for teaching and I enjoy interacting with students. I often take a conversational approach when I lecture and value my students' contributions to discussion. Additionally, I use other methods, such as games and music, to engage my students.

My main goal, when I teach, is to instill in my students an appreciation of how helpful sociological frameworks and concepts can be when applying them to their own experiences.

 I have taught both in-person and online (synchronously and asynchronously).

INSTRUCTOR

REL 306 Native American Religions, Spring 2025
This course offers a broad examination of Native American religions from the Americas, delving into the rich landscapes of Indigenous spiritual beliefs, practices, and cultural expressions. Students will explore the diverse array of Native American religious traditions, emphasizing historical foundations, contemporary adaptations, and resilience of Indigenous spiritualities in the face of on-going environmental and political dispossession. Because of the land upon which the university resides, an emphasis will be placed on the perspectives and experiences of the Anishinaabek (Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe).

SOC 475 Health & Society, Summer 2023, 2022 and 2021
This course examines the social roots of health and disease. Rather than understanding health from an individual perspective, students examine how SES, gender, race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation affects health outcomes. Some of the topics covered include: medicalization and construction of illness, fundamental cause of disease, social support and social networks, as well as health care interactions/access. By engaging with these topics, students develop a social structural perspective for health that can be applied to careers in medicine, public health, health policy, and social science.

SOC 316 Youth & Society, Summer 2020
This course focuses on youth and societal issues by examining the interactions and behavioral changes that occur among youth during adolescent development in reference to biological, social, cultural as well as historical conditions. Topics covered in youth studies include: employment, health, crime and deviance, family issues, identity, and education. This course investigates how youths transition into adults and how youth experience shapes worldviews and life trajectories.