I first decided to become a sociologist and educator because of an exceptional professor who I was introduced to at a pivotal moment in my own education. I was pursuing an MA in international affairs, without interrogating what fundamentally interested me in the field, and found myself seeking book recommendations and mentorship from a professor who ultimately ascertained what I was in fact most interested in: sociology. In my courses, I hope that students learn not just how to think critically but also what interests them and why. In addition to having been an instructor and undergraduate thesis mentor in the UCLA Sociology Department, my primary teaching experience is through the Institute for Society and Genetics, where I taught the intro course to the Human Biology and Society major on five separate occasions. The HBS program teaches students to think about problems situated at the intersection of science and society by drawing on ideas from a variety of disciplines, including biology, anthropology, epidemiology, engineering, history, sociology, and environmental science. My experience working in the HBS program has both made me skeptical of the notion that STEM students are uninterested in what the humanities and social sciences have to offer, while also convincing me that for a host of important topics (climate change, the emergence of AI, the explosion of genomic technologies), the integration of ideas from across the liberal arts is a necessary component of higher education in the 21st century for students in every field.Â
For more information about my teaching philosophy, course evaluations, and sample syllabi, please contact me.