Pedagogical Approach
I have spent my academic career at the UW in a joint appointment in the Law, Societies and Justice (LSJ) Program and the Political Science Department with an adjunct faculty appointments in the School of Law, Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and European Studies faculty and have extensive experience teaching students from each of these programs. My graduate teaching, doctoral supervision and mentorship involves PhD and JD students with a comparative and international law focus from Political Science, School of Law, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography and Near & Middle Eastern Studies. I also serve on the Steering Committee and have designed and taught a course for the new UW Integrated Social Sciences online degree completion program, serving and empowering students both local and from around the globe to overcome life challenges and complete their college education.
Explore my Women’s Rights as Human’s Rights course taught through UW ISS:
- Browse the course website by clicking the image below.
I find working with students as an educator immensely rewarding. I am dedicated to providing an applied research experience on salient global justice issues and I provide the instruction, tools and mentorship enabling student success. The undergraduate and graduate courses I teach are comparative and global with my teaching expertise complementing and expanding beyond my current research agenda. Courses engage theoretical insights from social scientists and are structured around critical thinking and writing, reading case law, learning substantive areas of law, acquisition of data and research skills and then development and presentation of original research.
Along with applied research, experiential learning, through study abroad, service opportunities, and technology in the classroom, is also a hallmark of my pedagogical approach. I established the first and longest running LSJ study abroad program which takes LSJ and Law students to Rome, Italy each year. I also regularly include a service learning component in my courses which enable students to concurrently work in a related local community organization. This includes placements in the local criminal justice system (e.g. public defender’s office, juvenile justice system) to community support organizations such as Seattle Against Slavery (trafficking), Innocence Project NW (legal aid) and domestic violence shelters. Finally, I was awarded a UW Technology Teaching Fellow grant, which provides extensive technology training that I now regularly adopt in my classroom, from interactive websites and discussion forums to assignments enabling students to share their research through the creation of websites and presentations.
Example lecture courses