Pedagogical Approach

As an instructor, I aim to put complex claims and distinctions into the most accessible terms possible, while still staying true to their meaning. I also aim to help students realize that the task of writing is making the distance between one's idea and its expression the shortest possible.

In addition, I aim to get students to ask questions they might not have considered before entering my classroom, while simultaneously inspiring those who are already hooked on philosophy to continue down the path of philosohical exploration. Perhaps most importantly, I aim to get students to see why philosophy matters, and how it affects their lives. 


In the classroom, I have worked to strike the delicate balance between lecturing and employing the Socratic method. My goal is to get students excited and engaged, but in a directed or structured way. I especially aim to bring women and members of other underrepresented groups into the philosophical dialogue. One of the ways I work to do this is by highlighting issues around gender and race in the canon, and designing inclusive courses. 

 

I see my teaching as closely connected to, and integrated with, my research. A recent publication titled "Including Early Modern Women Writers in Survey Courses: A Call to Action" (co-authored with Nancy Kendrick) illustrates this. 

Select Courses

  • Philosophy and Cultural Diversity

    In this introductory level course, we consider some of the numerous questions debated within philosophy. These include: What can we know? How do we know it? Is there a God? What is a person? What makes anyone the same person over time? How ought we organize ourselves politically? How do gender and race shape our lives?

    To think through these issues and questions, we read texts authored by a diverse cross-section of philosophers, with the express purpose of regularly engaging students with perspectives relevantly unlike their own.

    The goal of this course is not for students to come to steadfast conclusions about these important topics, but to leave with an understanding of, and appreciation for, both the kinds of questions asked, and the range of answers given, within the discipline of philosophy. The expectation is that students will have a safe space to consider critically topics they might not have had the chance to ponder before. The hope is that students will see this brief introduction to philosophy as just the beginning of philosophical exploration.

  • History of Modern Survey Course

    Our focus in this course is on the metaphysics and politics of personhood, as discussed during the 17th-18th centuries. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the ways in which women and BIPOC philosophers shaped the debates over persons and personhood in the modern period, but equal emphasis is placed on connecting these debates to concerns we face today.


    Throughout the course we also discuss the philosophical canon and the ways in which it can and should be expanded and changed to include those from marginalized and underrepresented groups.

    Spring 2023, I taught a grad seminar: Unheeded: Epistemic Harms Against Women, Then and Now.

    Spring 2026 I will teach a grad seminar: Elisabeth, Conway, Cockburn and Friends (or Bros.)