philosophy
Transforming minds and hearts is a revolutionary act. Aside from research and writing, teaching/educating one another is definitely a transformative, social action. Since my primary focus is critical study of the academy and higher education institutions, then my teaching work must also reflect this in both pedagogy and praxis. The classroom, institution, and the community all become experimental spaces to help us explore how (in)equity and (in)justice manifest within the everyday spaces we share, but most importantly, where students' knowledge and contributions to discourses are invited and equally valued. Students, in our classrooms, are collaborators in the learning process, as seekers of truth, and protagonists of justice and equity.
As an educator, it is often assumed that all the knowledge is with the instructor, but every class session reminds me that this is far from the truth. Students are like infinite mirrors, offering countless learning opportunities that remind me of the necessity to adopt teaching through a humble posture of learning. Every class session is a form of knowledge production in itself, a learning opportunity for me to grow and improve as an educator, a collaborator, as a lover of humankind, and to teach according to the respective powers of my students. In the words of Kahlil Gibran, it is the "faith [and] lovingness" of a true teacher that awakens the inherent capacities of her/his students.
As an educator, it is often assumed that all the knowledge is with the instructor, but every class session reminds me that this is far from the truth. Students are like infinite mirrors, offering countless learning opportunities that remind me of the necessity to adopt teaching through a humble posture of learning. Every class session is a form of knowledge production in itself, a learning opportunity for me to grow and improve as an educator, a collaborator, as a lover of humankind, and to teach according to the respective powers of my students. In the words of Kahlil Gibran, it is the "faith [and] lovingness" of a true teacher that awakens the inherent capacities of her/his students.
My desire to teach is inspired by those academics from the "periphery" who taught me with such an unwavering love for knowledge, justice, and humankind, that it displayed in their deeds (not only in words alone). Teaching in the classroom is paralleled by community action. We learn and apply such knowledges in order to achieve transformation within ourselves, our institutions, our communities, our neighborhoods, and our world. To hold up a mirror to your students and show them the nobility that you see . . . this is what keeps me coming back, what gives me faith as an educator. This transformation of minds and hearts within the academy is truly a "revolutionary" act for the transformation of our "glocal" societies.
I have taught at an American community college representative of mostly low-income, first-generation college students from over 135 countries; at a precarious, unaccredited online minority serving institution under government surveillance in Iran; at a wealthy, predominantly white private R1 university in the U.S.; and a historically white Afrikaner university with a majority black student population in South Africa. I understand that issues of diversity, inclusion, and justice within U.S. and global societies are not merely limited to ideal concepts—but to necessary and inevitable moral and social realities, especially within our own academic machineries. Examining “the heart” of these machines is what fuels my research, teaching, mentoring/graduate student supervision, and service work, because even within the machine, there is always the capacity for an upgrade.
I have taught at an American community college representative of mostly low-income, first-generation college students from over 135 countries; at a precarious, unaccredited online minority serving institution under government surveillance in Iran; at a wealthy, predominantly white private R1 university in the U.S.; and a historically white Afrikaner university with a majority black student population in South Africa. I understand that issues of diversity, inclusion, and justice within U.S. and global societies are not merely limited to ideal concepts—but to necessary and inevitable moral and social realities, especially within our own academic machineries. Examining “the heart” of these machines is what fuels my research, teaching, mentoring/graduate student supervision, and service work, because even within the machine, there is always the capacity for an upgrade.
courses
Current & Recent Undergraduate & Graduate Courses
* Foundations of Education * Decolonization, Decoloniality, and the Academy * African and Black Diasporas and the (De)colonial University * Schooled in Storytelling * Globalizing Critical Ethnic Studies in Higher Education * Critical Theory Around the Globe * Coloniality, Race, and Higher Education * Critical Research Methods for Social Justice * Introduction to Women's Studies * Political Sociology (online) * Social Problems and Issues |
* Gender in International Education and Development * Introduction to Sociology * Sociology of Ethnicity and Race * Critical Human Rights Education * Sociology of Education and Knowledge Systems * (In)visibilizing Gender in Higher Ed. Policy and Scholarship * Activism and Social Movements in Higher Education * Digital (Re)productions of Knowledge as Protest * Critical Higher Education Transformation * Gender(ed) Discourse and Social Action * Transnational Resistances * Global Knowledges and Diaspora Studies |