Teaching Philosophy

As an Assistant Professor at the University of Portland, graduate teaching assistant at the University of Southern California, and Visiting Lecturer at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), I have helped facilitate my students’ education by modeling reflexivity and critical thinking. Using my background in communication, media, and Africana studies, I draw on contemporary social issues and cultural artifacts to explain difficult course concepts to students. Through multimodal class activities, I encourage and show my students how to closely read, discuss, and master difficult concepts – not only for their personal intellectual fulfillment but also so they can learn how to interrogate, synthesize, and meaningfully apply different sets of discourses to contemporary issues and their own lived realities. Because my students come from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds, I use my classes to model inclusivity, cross-cultural exchange, and respectful discussion – allowing my students room to make mistakes, challenge concepts, learn from each other, and reflexively (un)learn what they may have previously accepted as common sense or as established systems of knowledge.