Courses Taught
At Claremont McKenna College:
In Fall 2018 I began to experiment with a new assignment structure inspired by the framework of a roleplaying game à la Dungeons and Dragons. You can read more about that experiment here and here.
I have been recognized with a faculty career mentor recognition of impact award, awarded a course innovation grant for the development of courses that address race, racism, and racial inequalities, and awarded the Glenn R. Huntoon Award in Superior Teaching. The latter was awarded on the basis of a vote of the entire CMC student body for outstanding work in the classroom.
- Advanced Seminar: Belief, Evidence, and Agency (Fall 2020)
- Epistemology (Fall 2019, Spring 2023)
- Freshman Humanities Seminar: Evil (Fall 2020, Spring 2022)
- Freshman Humanities Seminar: Race, Diversity, and Higher Education (Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023)
- Interdisciplinary Seminar: Structural Injustice (AY 2020-2021)
- Intro to Philosophy: Moral and Political Issues (Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020)
- Special Topics in Value Theory: Agency and Identity (Spring 2021, Fall 2023)
- Race and Policy (Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2022)
- What’s Wrong With Discrimination?, Central European University (Summer 2019)
- Business Ethics, University of Southern California (co-taught with Mike Ashfield, Summer 2015)
In Fall 2018 I began to experiment with a new assignment structure inspired by the framework of a roleplaying game à la Dungeons and Dragons. You can read more about that experiment here and here.
I have been recognized with a faculty career mentor recognition of impact award, awarded a course innovation grant for the development of courses that address race, racism, and racial inequalities, and awarded the Glenn R. Huntoon Award in Superior Teaching. The latter was awarded on the basis of a vote of the entire CMC student body for outstanding work in the classroom.
Outreach and Other
Humanities Lab: Great Expectations
Corrupt the Youth - Los Angeles
Prison Education Project
Ethics Bootcamp
- In AY 2019-2020 I led a humanities lab on the topic of expectations through The Gould Center for Humanistic Studies. Final projects completed by the students can be found here.
Corrupt the Youth - Los Angeles
- The Los Angeles chapter of the Corrupt the Youth program is an outreach program with the mission of bringing philosophy to those who lack access to it. Philosophy offers a set of tools with which to understand, critically assess, and address the issues the students will face in their lives, and ensures that they can advocate for themselves and succeed in other environments. Through engaging in philosophical inquiry they discover and strengthen their own voices, and clarify their own thoughts and ideas.
- Through the Youth Education Department of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, we are working with at-risk youth who fall between the ages of 14-24. Each month we host a discussion themed around "the big questions." We are sensitive to the unique challenges and issues that these youth face as members of systematically disadvantaged groups. So, when we ask "What is love?", their life experiences put them in a special position to reflect on what love means for them, how they've experienced it, and what they want it to look like. Their world has and continues to be shaped by answers to these big questions, but rarely are they asked to share and develop their own views on the answers. Being asked what you think shouldn't be a privilege afforded only to those that can attend college.
- This collaboration was started by myself, Gabbrielle Johnson, and Maegan Fairchild. It now continues under the leadership of Jesse Wilson.
Prison Education Project
- In Fall 2017 I co-taught an introduction to philosophy course (introduction to ethics and big philosophical ideas) at Santa Fe Springs Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program (CCTRP) through the Prison Education Project in collaboration with the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics.
- The responses from the students at the end of the course have been collected in a document available here.
Ethics Bootcamp
- In partnership with the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics, myself, Mike Ashfield, and Maegan Fairchild created an annual workshop for USC students from across majors to provide them with the resources they need to answer ethical problems that will inevitably arise as they move through their professional careers.
- For example, scientists' duties to the public can often conflict with loyalty to their company. Business leaders must not only decide what level of risk is acceptable, but also how to weigh different kinds of risk. Journalists must question when they should promise confidentiality and if there are ever any grounds for breaking such a promise. An education in ethics provides students with the preparation and resources they need to answer questions like these.