Teaching

I am a passionate teacher with serious interest in pedagogy; I am always striving to find ways to better myself as an instructor.

Awards and Fellowships

• In 2023, I received the Elizabeth Baranger Excellence in Teaching Award.

• In 2022, I was awarded the Humanities Engage Summer Fellowship for Collections-Based Curricular Development for an undergraduate course I developed with Dr. Nicholas Rescher on the Vienna Circle.

• In 2019, I was a teaching fellow at MIT’s Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI).

Courses Taught as Primary Instructor

• Friendship (honors seminar)

• History of Ancient Philosophy [syllabus]

• Morality and Medicine

• Introduction to Chinese Philosophy [syllabus]

• Introduction to Logic

• Beginner Ancient Greek (language course)

Teaching Interests

• [Introductory] How to Spot a Sophist

In ancient Athens, sophists were viewed with suspicion, and were seen by the citizenry as intellectual predators who were corrupting the youth. In this course, students learn about and read the writings of Ancient Greek sophists, and each sophist will be paired with an online/social media personality who parrots the same or similar arguments and rhetorical tactics but updated for contemporary topics and slang. For example, controversial psychology professor Jordan Peterson is paired with rhetorician/orator Isocrates, and the sophist Protagoras – famous for his doctrine that man is the measure of all things – is paired with misogynist influencer Andrew Tate.

• [Upper Level] Aristotle’s Ethics and the Soul [syllabus]

An advanced introduction to key themes in Aristotle’s philosophy, focused on the relationship between the physiological account of the soul in De Anima and the account of the human soul – and human character – in the Nicomachean Ethics.

• [Upper Level] The Philosophy of Pleasure [syllabus]

An advanced course in moral psychology, focused on investigating the nature of pleasure. Covers approaches from value theory, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science.

• [Upper Level] Empiricism Through the Ages

An advanced course on the evolution of empiricism in the history of philosophy, covering ancient empiricism (including Aristotle and Epicurus), early-modern empiricism (including Locke and Hume), and analytic empiricism (including the Vienna Circle).

Additional Syllabi

• Introduction to Moral Philosophy [syllabus]

• Introduction to Indian Philosophy [syllabus]

I also have syllabi for the following classes, available upon request: Bioethics, Introduction to Feminist Theory, Introduction to Political Theory, Deductive Logic, and various levels of Ancient Greek and Latin language courses.

Pedagogical Projects

A long term goal of mine is to develop an Introduction to Ancient African Philosophy syllabus. This goal was born partially out of personal interest and intellectual curiosity as a scholar of ancient philosophy, and partially out of my commitment to pedagogical diversity and inclusivity in the philosophical canon. To my knowledge, this course would be the first of its kind in the west. I have found that developing an ancient African philosophy syllabus in particular is difficult because there is a high barrier of entry to learn about the subject, even for western scholars who are interested; there does not exist any sourcebook that organizes and compiles primary sources from which to learn and teach. It was the creation of such sourcebooks in 1967 and 2001 for ancient Indian and Chinese philosophy, respectively, that enabled academics in the west to begin teaching these subjects more regularly in philosophy departments. As I see it, developing an Introduction to Ancient African Philosophy syllabus would require a sourcebook of this kind. Since one does not exist, I have begun working on one as part of my postdoctoral fellowship at SIUE.