What do you love about teaching?

I love teaching because it means that I never stop learning. This happens, in part, through the research I do to keep my curriculum current. Mostly, though, it’s thanks to my students, who always bring new ideas and knowledge into the conversation. Teaching is an opportunity to geek out for hundreds of hours every year with incredibly smart, creative, diverse people. What’s not to love about that?

What are some memorable projects you’ve had students do and how do they reflect your goals as an educator?

It’s always memorable when students apply concepts and methods from class to the world around us. In Hostile Environments, for example, we work in groups to develop ‘power maps’ and historical accounts of toxic exposure and environmental injustice in the Pittsburgh region. My goal as an educator is to bridge the divide between the classroom and the ‘real world’.

What one piece of advice would you give your students?

The future is always uncertain, and that seems especially so today. I urge students to develop skills and relationships that build collective agency for facing whatever the future holds. What happens when, instead of thinking of your future as an individual career, you think of it as a part of a collective movement to strengthen the social fabric, abolish systemic inequality, and thrive in uncertain times?