Pedagogy 

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While teaching Introduction to Philosophy during my Ph.D., I had an exchange with a student that made clear the gravity of teaching philosophy, especially to young, impressionable minds. My student had come to my office to discuss a reading that argued emotion was central to religious experience. She asked, “When I go to church, I don’t feel much. Does that mean I don’t believe in God?” Philosophy can change the way people look at the world, which is why I love teaching it. Still, the last thing I wanted was for my student to abandon her culture just because she read one philosophical text. So, I responded, “The point of philosophy is to think critically about what we believe and how we act by considering different perspectives. The paper we read offers one perspective of many. If it doesn’t fit your experience, that’s okay.”

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This is, by far, not the only exchange I’ve had with students like this. From discussing children’s access to gender-affirming care to the past and present abuses of minority communities by scientists, my central aim as a teacher is to foster an environment of trust and openness where students can learn how to respectfully ask questions and debate their opinions on controversial topics without recrimination. In this way, my goal as a teacher is to cultivate not only knowledgeable individuals, but well-rounded democratic citizens; in other words, human beings who take care of their communities and themselves. While this is my main pedagogical end, my main means to this end is helping students develop excellent written and oral communication skills through diverse and innovative assignments, as being able to articulate oneself clearly, persuasively, and thoughtfully is key to productive discourse. 

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For example, for a course I designed and taught in Fall 2023 called Science Communication in Democracy, I helped students learn how to write journalistic op-eds as well as argumentative philosophy papers. I also tasked them with composing weekly detailed discussion questions, which we used to structure our class discussion. Lastly, to extend our discourse outside of the classroom, I asked students to discuss a class topic with a friend or family member or on social media. For this last assignment, one of my students decided to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine with his brother, who had been hesitant to get it. From listening to the conversation’s recording, I could tell my student had gained the practice needed from our class discussions to respectfully articulate his own perspective and ask questions that got his brother thinking. Due to the course’s success, I’m teaching it again in Spring 2025.

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Like many of the courses I’ve taught, this course was interdisciplinary: It integrated texts from philosophy and communication studies, empirical studies on science communication and journalistic articles, podcasts, and documentaries. Even when I’ve taught standard survey philosophy courses, such as Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Science, I still integrated journalistic media, as I’ve found that students engage more with philosophical texts when they can see how the ideas in them relate to our everyday world. I’m thankful to my advisor, Michael Weisberg, who helped me refine this interdisciplinary approach through working with him on various projects. For example, I helped him design and was a teaching assistant for Repairing the Planet: Tools for the Climate Emergency, a course that integrates philosophy, fiction and policy texts, and a philosophy of science Coursera course, in which nearly 20,000 members of the public have enrolled. 

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My commitment to cultivating effective democratic citizens and more generally using philosophy to help students think critically about their beliefs and actions comes through in an article published in Penn’s newsletter, Penn Today, about my Science Communication in Democracy course. One student who was interviewed said that our classroom was “a very respectful environment,” where we were “always very charitable with interpreting each other’s arguments,” adding that the “class might be their favorite because of [its] interdisciplinary approach.” Another student, who was the executive editor of UPenn’s student newspaper, also said that the course “challenged her previously held view of science ‘as an objective arbiter of truth,’” adding that it also allowed her to “re-examine” how she thinks “about the illusion of objectivity in [journalistic] reporting.” Multiple students have made similar comments in my teaching evaluations, namely that I’m an “incredible” and a “great” teacher because I stimulate substantive class discussions.

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Because of my commitment to fostering effective democratic citizenship, Penn’s SNF Paideia Program designated my Science Communication in Democracy course part of their program and provided me $11,000 to invite speakers, including Vox journalist Sean Illing, to meet with my students and give public talks related to the course. This program is providing me with $15,000 to teach it and invite speakers again in Spring 2025. Like myself, the Paideia Program aims to help students develop the knowledge and skills necessary for “meaningful dialogues across difference.” My commitment to cultivating effective democratic citizens can also be seen in the kinds of workshops I attended while obtaining Penn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation Teaching Certificate, including Building Community in the Classroom, Making Your Teaching More Accessible and Inclusive, and Discussing Our Difficult Past: When Past & Present Collide in Your Classroom.

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Generally, I accommodate students’ different learning styles and interests by diversifying assignments and assigning readings in tiers. I typically assign one to two papers per class that are representative of the topic at hand with recommended readings for those who would like to explore further. My lectures then situate the readings in a larger body of literature. I’ve found that this flexibility in the type and quantity of assignments and readings makes even my more advanced courses accessible to those without a background in philosophy. It also nurtures the environment of trust needed for honest and insightful class discussions. In fact, in one teaching evaluation, a student said they “really enjoyed” my class because I “mastered a perfect balance” between lecturing and discussion. 

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While I’m eager to teach subjects I’ve already taught (i.e. Political Philosophy, Bioethics, Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Mind), I’m also excited to design new courses. In addition to the courses I outline in my cover letter, I would love to teach courses on the American pragmatists, as I believe their ideas can help students better understand our current democratic crisis. In doing so, I’d cover the founders, such as John Dewey and William James, as well as minority pragmatists, including Jane Addams and W.E.B. Du Bois. In addition, since Introduction to Philosophy is many students’ first exposure to philosophy, I’d love to use it to counter negative stereotypes of the field, such as a lack of practical importance or an exclusivity of minority groups’ perspectives. To do so, I would assign classics, like Descartes’ Meditations, as well as seminal contemporary texts, such as Miranda Fricker’s Epistemic Injustice. As a woman in philosophy whose research centers on rebalancing power between scientists and the public in democracy, I know of much philosophical work that defies these stereotypes, and I can’t wait to share it with future students.