As Instructor of Record
at the University of Michigan

Introduction to Philosophy (2023)

Issues in Bioethics (2022 in person + 2020 online)
 

As Graduate Student Instructor
at the University of Michigan
2 discussion sections + grading

Ethics - Philosophy 361

Contemporary Moral Problems - Philosophy 355

Changing the World - Philosophy 250

Philosophy of Religion - Philosophy 262

Science Fiction and Philosophy - Philosophy 154

Critical Reasoning - Philosophy 183

Introduction to Philosophy - Philosophy 232

Knowledge and Reality - Philosophy 383

Here are some of the things I have done to develop my teaching practices:

  • Courses and Workshops at the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching:
    Evaluating Student Writing; Developing Your Teaching Philosophy; Teaching for Inclusion and Equity; Assessing Student Participation: What, How, and Why? Facilitating Classroom Discussions in the Social Sciences and Humanities and Research-Based Practices for College Teaching

  • I was a fellow with Michigan’s Engaged Pedagogy Initiative, a semester long training program focusing on best practices for developing courses that incorporate community-engaged learning

  • A multi-day workshop with the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT) focused on active learning pedagogy and backwards-planning in syllabus development

Examples of my syllabi and other teaching materials can be found below

  • PHIL 101: Introduction to Philosophy

    I taught this course in Summer 2023. It is split into two units:

    Unit 1 introduces students to metaphysics and epistemology via an exploration of our identity over time, authenticity, autonomy, and freedom.

    Unit 2 introduces students to ethical theories and ends with their applying these theories to a contemporary issue of their choosing.

    Syllabus:
    Philosophy 101

    Sample classroom handouts:
    reflection, connection, and revision activity

    paper planning practice task

    Sample lecture slides:

    Identity

  • Materials on Transformative Experiences

    Here are the slides and a follow-along worksheet for an undergraduate class I gave last year on transformative experiences

  • PHIL 356: Issues in Bioethics

    I taught versions of this course in 2020 (online) and 2022 (in person).

    PHIL 356 is unusual in that it is an upper-level philosophy course with no philosophy pre-requisites. Most of the students enrolled had no background in philosophy and were majoring in STEM. Many were planning future careers in healthcare. I designed the syllabus with this in mind.

    My pedagogical goals were:

    1. To encourage students to reflect on underlying concepts and values that play a role in shaping healthcare institutions and practices, but that we often taken for granted in our day-to-day lives.

    2. To motivate students to continue reflecting critically on ethical issues as they arise in their lives and careers, and to equip them with philosophical tools for doing so - tools that they can draw on and further develop outside of the classroom.

    Here is a paper prompt I used for an assigned essay on the role and value of autonomy in advanced directives.

  • PHIL 361 - ETHICS

    Here are the slides I used in Winter 2023 when teaching Travis Rieder’s “Procreation, Adoption and the Contours of Obligation”. For this course, I led two discussion sections of 25 students and I met each section twice per week.