Teaching

Teaching is the motivating tenet of what I do as a scholar and academic. I am passionate about consolidating seemingly complex and abstract theories into practical real-world lessons for my students to engage with and apply to their own lives. One of the animating approaches in my courses is an expansive understanding of “politics” whereby students to are challenged to re-think what “counts as politics” beyond recognizable formal politics, like elections. Instead they critically engage with how politics shapes everyday interactions from the food we eat to the clothes we wear, and from the stories in the news we read to the conversations they have with(in) their communities. This emerges in my Introduction to Comparative Politics course that centers readings by feminist thinkers as well as in my course, “Power and Politics in the Middle East,” where they learn to question dominant paradigms of studying about/in/of West Asia.

Together, in a collaborative learning environment, we deconstruct power both in theory and in practice.

I currently teach the following:

Introduction to Comparative Politics (100 level class, online and in person)

Example syllabus here.

Power and Politics of the Middle East (300 level class, online)

Example syllabus here.