Teaching Philosophy
My
work seeks to render historical questions, perspectives, and stories socially
meaningful for present populations. The opportunity to engage students in this process is an integral part of
my work. Towards this end, my primary objective as a teacher is to provide
students with a critical lens towards American studies so that they may better locate
themselves as agents of social change. The toolkit I use to do so emphasizes experiential learning, community engagement, and digital media.
Experiential
learning offers a powerful tool for engaging students with the practice of
comparative ethnic studies. Because of my own professionalization within
archival and preservation based organizations, these activities have centered
on providing students with opportunities for primary historical analysis,
including:
- Conducting
on-site architectural analysis of “the Mexican Village” in Los Angeles
- Discussing
historical methods with archivists at the Seaver Center for Western
History
- Analyzing
the content of exhibits at the Natural History Museum
Rather than finding a “correct”
answer, I ask students to consider the various ways groups have worked to
create historical narratives that shape the ways we understand racial
difference. Recognizing the production of history as a process with material
consequences challenges passive-learning approaches to education and can spark
debate regarding the stakes involved when making sense of the past.
I find that opportunities to move the classroom
beyond campus resonate particularly strongly with underrepresented students,
for whom the communities surrounding urban universities more closely represents
their own ethnic or class identifications. For instance, in my
coordination of the Building People’s History project, a semester long
community partnership intended to draw public attention to a politically-active
archive in south Los Angeles, students from
diverse backgrounds became active participants in discussion, stayed after
class, and expressed interest in becoming majors. The visible presence of
leaders sharing a similar background helped them connect with class materials,
take an active role in the discussion, and envision a place for themselves in
the production of history.
Experiential learning and community
partnerships contribute to an active-learning environment within the classroom.
They provide opportunities for student reflection within writing assignments,
common experiences to draw upon during small-group work, and material references
for lectures. Based on iterations in my discussion section at USC, I plan for
student-led discussion to be a signature part of each class. While lecture and
assignments also hold a central role in my classroom, I believe that fostering students’
responsibility for themselves and their classmates helps them hone a sense of
self-awareness and accountability as social agents whose ideas and actions
affect others. I am also interested in integrating digital media to the
classroom in sustainable ways, evident by my current training through the
Institute for Multimedia Literacy at USC.
In closing, as a scholar with a commitment to the public
humanities, I seek to make ethnic studies meaningful to students by applying
its lessons to the analysis of contemporary landscapes. It is my goal to realize
visions of liberatory praxis in the local times and places of people’s lives,
both within and beyond the classroom.