Teaching Philosophy—March 2024

As a queer critical cultural scholar, multimedia artist, and activist-practitioner, I connect learning goals to cultural and historical contexts with a social justice imperative and illustrate their cross-disciplinary applications. Queerness permeates my pedagogy by working against the grain of neoliberalism, white supremacy, settler colonialism, and cis-heteropatriarchy. To achieve these values, my primary aim is to foster students’ critical consciousness by focusing on reflexive thinking, creative expression, experiential learning, and communicating across difference.

Cross-disciplinary application is critical to my pedagogical praxis, and I stress the importance of reflexive thinking to elucidate the Self as a site of inquiry. Many of my students are not Communication majors, so their presence is possibly the only opportunity to expose them to a critical communication education. To this end, I invite students to bring their interests, backgrounds, and experiences to the classroom. For example, in Public Speaking my students research a cultural group they identify with—such as a religious or ethnic identity or a personal interest like gaming—then perform a speech informing us of their cultural group situated within a historical and cultural context. Similarly, in Media & Societystudents curate a “Media Auto-Archeology” where they “dig up” media artifacts (photos, memes, gifs, videos) to tell a story about who they are today. Here, reflexive thinking and creative expression come together for students to understand how media shapes identity.

As an activist-practitioner, I make space for students to apply course concepts in experiential settings with social justice imperatives. For instance, in Public Speaking students’ research a social issue and pitch a non-profit organization to persuade their peers to invest in their project. Students are given money to invest in projects they think make the most persuasive arguments. While a friendly competition, this activity illustrates the capitalist consequences of persuasion and I debrief about how social change often requires navigating the rules of capitalism. In Media & Society, students create “Visibility Campaigns” where they identify a social issue near-campus, then in groups create a series of media assets (social media posts, memes, TikToks) to raise awareness, and develop a plan to enact change. Through coalition building, students employ technical and creative skills as experiential learning to become activist-practitioners.

Central to my classroom is students’ interests driving class discussion while I facilitate and prod their thinking. At the beginning of the semester, I advise them we will discuss potentially challenging topics. I am cognizant that I cannot shape students into social justice warriors in a semester. Therefore, my imperative is to develop their critical consciousness. I remind them I am not interested in “what they think”, but how they think. I tell them some days will be rewarding, others challenging, and we will experience a range of emotions, from anger to curiosity to joy, during the semester. For example, in Media & Society discussions about representation allow students from historically marginalized communities to engage in critique, but also for more privileged students to negotiate their identities through an informed history of hegemonic media representation. While these discussions can be challenging, and sometimes I do not get the outcomes I hope for, they are often the beginnings of fostering critical consciousness.  

Students leave my class able to engage in reflexive thinking, creatively express their ideas and identities, apply theory across disciplines, and communicate across difference. My hope is students view their world through a new lens attentive to power and social injustice and have the skills and critical consciousness to enact social change in their communities.

University of Tampa: Department of Communication

Media & Society (Adjunct Instructor: Fall 2023, Spring 2024)

University of South Florida: Department of Communication

Public Speaking (Instructor of Record: Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Summer 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024)

Introduction to Communication (Graduate Teaching Assistant: Summer 2022)

Communication & Cultural Diversity (Graduate Teaching Assistant: Fall 2021 and Spring 2022)

University of South Florida: College of Engineering

Engineering Economics with Social & Global Implications (Graduate Assistant for Communication Education: Summer 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Summer 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024)

Globalization & Technology (Graduate Assistant for Communication Education: Fall 2022)

University of Tampa: Office of First-Year Engagement

First Year Seminar 1 (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant: Fall 2019, Fall 2020)

First Year Seminar 2 (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant: Spring 2020, Spring 2021)

Transfer Student Seminar (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant: Spring 2021)