Experience

Assistant Professor, William & Mary, Department of Government, ongoing
Postdoctoral Fellow, Muhlenberg College, Consortium for Faculty Diversity, Political Science Department, 2021-2023
Instructor, Temple University, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, Fall 2020
Instructor, University of Pennsylvania, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, Spring 2020
Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania, Political Science Department, Fall 2016-Spring 2019

Sample Courses

POLITICS OF PLEASURE (William & Mary)
Political inquiry is often focused on the "the bad" -- and for good reason. Harm, loss, and suffering raise critical political questions. But what do we miss when we forget to account for pleasure in politics? What relationships and associations go unaccounted? What kinds of demands are rendered illegible? Drawing on diverse lenses and thinkers from political theory and beyond, this course interrogates the role of pleasure in political life. We will read texts that offer diverse definitions of what pleasure means, and what its status could or should be in political and ethical life. This course is a Senior Seminar, as also fulfills the Sexualities and Transgender Studies (LGBT) focus area requirement for the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies major and minor.

INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL THEORY (William & Mary)
This course provides students with an introduction to some of the key themes, ideas, and canonical texts within the field of political theory. The course is organized around the central theme of freedom: what is the meaning of freedom? What does it look like, and what are its limitations? These have become some of the most contested questions of contemporary political life. We will read texts that offer diverse definitions of what freedom means, and what its status should be in political and ethical life. We will consider which of these definitions of freedom resonate with our own and which seem unfamiliar, while asking ourselves what it might mean for freedom to have such variable and contested definitions. We will examine what freedom has looked like in historical practice and ask what it could look like in the future. We will evaluate both the benefits and the costs of different ideas of freedom as they are operationalized. Readings will be both historical and contemporary in focus and include thinkers from each of the three main historical periods in the field (ancient and medieval, modern, and contemporary). The course fulfills the political theory requirement for the Government major.

INTRODUCTION TO CONFLICT & PEACE STUDIES (Muhlenberg College)
This is an introductory course in the interdisciplinary field of conflict and peace studies which examines different approaches to theorizing conflict, its relationship to peace, and its place in politics and society. Additionally, this course reflects on what it means to be a scholar of conflict & peace studies. We will learn, evaluate, and critique different methods for studying peace and conflict. Throughout the semester, students will engage in a simulation which requires them to design a plan for responding to and rebuilding in the aftermath of war, including collecting histories, defining and administering justice, and thinking about memory and memorialization.

POLITICS OF VIOLENCE (Muhlenberg College)
Violence seems to be an inescapable part of our world. It is among the oldest, most varied, and most consistent elements of political life. Despite this, we often hear acts of political violence described as “senseless,” “pointless,” or “meaningless.” How can we reconcile the apparent political role of violence with such descriptions? What is political violence, and what makes it political? This course delves into these difficult questions by examining political violence from many perspectives. We will read philosophical texts and empirical research from a range of contexts and historical moments. We will also consider artistic works, including visual media, poetry, and short fiction. In doing so, we will work to understand not only what political violence is, but also how it shapes the world around us.

CRITICAL RACE FEMINIST THEORY (Muhlenberg College, Temple University)
In the early 1990s, Critical Race Theory emerged in legal scholarship out of protest movements, administrative upheavals, and critical reexaminations of legal education. This course builds from these ground-breaking texts to examine both the historical underpinnings of this literature and its implications for future feminist theory and practice. We will investigate the limits of liberal legal remedies in addressing the severe social realities faced by many women, men, trans folks, and non-binary people of color of various sexual identities. We will pay particular attention to the persistence of structural, institutional, and everyday racism despite the failure of race as a viable biological concept, and the intersections of racism with gender and sexuality. This course will also consider how core concepts from Critical Race Theory are deployed in and intersect with transnational feminist scholarship and indigenous activism.

GENDER AND SOCIETY (University of Pennsylvania)
This course will introduce students to the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality mark our bodies, influence our perceptions of self and others, organize families and work life, delimit opportunities for individuals and groups of people, as well as impact the terms of local and transnational economic exchange. We will explore the ways in which sex, gender, and sexuality work with other markers of difference and social status such as race, age, nationality, and ability to further demarcate possibilities, freedoms, choices, and opportunities available to people. This course fulfills the Society Sector and Cultural Diversity in the U.S. requirements. It is also required for the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies major.