TEACHING
Working at the intersection of sciences and environments, I believe that the methods of history and ethnography can offer a language for naming and confronting injustices and their reverberating effects, as well as for crafting good, responsible lives in demanding times. For this reason, I think these methods should be made as widely available and accessible as possible, just as they should be subject to constant evaluation and reimagination. I am constantly striving to develop practices in my teaching that makes the classroom an equitable, inclusive, and accessible site for the mutual exchange of ideas.
Working at the intersection of sciences and environments, I believe that the methods of history and ethnography can offer a language for naming and confronting injustices and their reverberating effects, as well as for crafting good, responsible lives in demanding times. For this reason, I think these methods should be made as widely available and accessible as possible, just as they should be subject to constant evaluation and reimagination. I am constantly striving to develop practices in my teaching that makes the classroom an equitable, inclusive, and accessible site for the mutual exchange of ideas.
I have twice taught for courses in the General Education program at Harvard. These were “Gender and Science,” and “Life and Death in the Anthropocene.” For both courses I was the recipient of a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Office of Undergraduate Education. I have also advised senior honors theses in the History of Science Department at Harvard.
Following teaching for “Life and Death in the Anthropocene,” I took a leading role in translating its undergraduate syllabus into one for a graduate reading and research course in the History of Science Department, entitled “Theorizing the Anthropocene.” That syllabus can be found here.
Having completed graduate qualifying examinations in the following areas, I have particular competence in ocean and maritime history, the history of biology & natural history, and the anthropology of the modern life sciences.
Following teaching for “Life and Death in the Anthropocene,” I took a leading role in translating its undergraduate syllabus into one for a graduate reading and research course in the History of Science Department, entitled “Theorizing the Anthropocene.” That syllabus can be found here.
Having completed graduate qualifying examinations in the following areas, I have particular competence in ocean and maritime history, the history of biology & natural history, and the anthropology of the modern life sciences.
Pteropod Ooze. Sir John Murray and Alphonse François Renard, Report
on Deep-Sea Deposits Based on the Specimens Collected During the Voyage of
H.M.S. Challenger in the Years 1872 to 1876 (H.M. Stationery Office, 1891).
See an example syllabus for a course I’ve called, Oceans of History.
“This course asks these central questions: what is the ocean’s history? What does it mean to say that, not only does the ocean have a place in human history, but that the ocean also makes and holds history? How has historicizing the ocean differed across regions? Has it been a site of resistance to dominant narratives? Are there alternative oceanic histories?”
“This course asks these central questions: what is the ocean’s history? What does it mean to say that, not only does the ocean have a place in human history, but that the ocean also makes and holds history? How has historicizing the ocean differed across regions? Has it been a site of resistance to dominant narratives? Are there alternative oceanic histories?”
Photograph of a lobster specimen, item 73, gen. 29.4, env. 3, HMS Challenger Papers, University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections.