My passion for teaching runs deep, as I believe that learning can be a profound and life-changing experience under the right circumstances. My goal in and outside of the classroom is to inspire students to think critically about the social world and their participation in it. I expect my students to challenge themselves and engage rigorously with all course material, and I expect myself to make that process as exciting and intellectually satisfying as possible.
I have taught a wide range of courses at Wake, including principles of sociology, the sociology of health and illness, sociology of emotion, the sociology of death and dying, the sociology of pregnancy and childbirth, and the sociology of carework. I particularly enjoy helping students develop and fine-tune their analysis and writing skills,and getting students out into the community through field trips to local funeral homes, food banks, and community programs. My most rewarding classroom experiences have often come outside of it, during unique hybrid and fully travel-based courses in which students conducted interviews in several North Carolina cities, and in Selma, Alabama. I say more about these travel courses here.
Teaching Grants and Awards
* Wake Forest University Innovative Teaching Award
* Provost's Fund for Academic Innovation Grant, Wake Forest University
* WFU Pro Humanitate Institute Community Engagement Mini-Grant
* Academic Community Engagement Fellowship, Wake Forest University
*College Course Enhancement Grant, Wake Forest University
*Brandeis Sociology Department Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award