Teaching
I am an award-winning instructor with years of experience teaching interdisciplinary courses on history, global health, Africa, science, and ethics.
My goal when teaching is to facilitate an engaged room of learners, to have students take ownership over the material, and for me to introduce students not just to a particular topic, but to the types of sources and methods used by historians. In each of my courses, I create opportunities for students to interact with primary sources in multiple forms: photographs, videos, oral narratives, archival documents, and ideally, material forms of culture. Introducing students to the challenges (and frustrations) of primary sources helps me look at my own materials in a new way, has often led to new insights, and is the most authentic way I know of showing students what historical research looks and feels like. I also regularly seek to integrate experiential and out-of-the-classroom learning activities. Most recently, a set of building activities were integrated into my HC 101 course, Malaria: Science, Ethics, History, Technology. With generous funding from a Williams Instructional award, we were able to build a host-decoy mosquito trap as part of our discussion of what counts as “appropriate technology.” You can read about it here and here.
In 2018 I received the University of Oregon's A.J. Ersted Award for Specialized Pedagogy. The award was in recognition of achievement and expertise in interdisciplinary, research-oriented, socially impactful undergraduate education. More about the award here and here.
Courses I’ve recently taught in African Studies, History, Global Studies, and the Honors College include:
AFR 215: Intro to African Studies (2023). Syllabus.
HIST 399/GLBL 399: Global Health History (2023). Syllabus.
HIST 407: Global Health History (2022). Syllabus.
HIST 419: History of East Africa (2015, 2016). Syllabus.
HC 101: Malaria: Science, Ethics, History, Technology (2020, 2021, 2022). Syllabus.
HC 231: Epidemics and Epistemologies (2016, 2017). Syllabus.
HC 232: Disease, Public Health and the Making of the Modern World (2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Syllabus.
HC 477: Thesis Prospectus (2018, 2020, 2021). Syllabus.