Teaching

Teaching Awards

I am pleased to be the recipient of two teaching awards:

2010: Mississippi Humanities Teacher of the Year

2023: College of Arts of Sciences Tenure-Track Teacher of the Year.

Political Theory

I teach a wide range of Political Theory courses, from ancient to contemporary, at both graduate and undergraduate levels. My approach to teaching political theory is more fully described on the main course website I use for the ‘core’ sequence. Influenced by approaches in comparative political theory, I have attempted to incorporate both more non-Western texts and more texts written by women into the core sequence, without eliminating authors considered ‘canonical.’ Across these courses (listed below as 420, 421, and 426) I have aimed to create a coherent narrative structure for students within which a variety of themes and approaches can be pursued.

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PS 321 American Political Thought

PS 428 African American Political Thought

PS 420/520 Ancient and Medieval Political Theory

PS 421/521 Modern Political Theory

PS 426/526 Contemporary Political Theory

PS 721 Graduate Seminar in Political Theory (topics have included, Democratic Theory; Race and Political Theory; Political Theory and Law)

Specific information about these classes can be found here (content varies depending on the semester, but message me if you'd like to see the syllabus for a particular class).

Political Science

I currently teach Political Parties in the Spring term. The class explores contemporary empirical and normative approaches to political parties.

I also teach an Introduction to Political Science (Great Issues of Politics).

Honors College

Since Fall 2017 I have taught in the new University of Southern Mississippi Honors College Curriculum. I have taught the full year Colloquium class four times, as well as a Sophomore Seminar focused on reason, emotion, and ‘persuasion’ (Jane Austen’s version as well as Danielle Allen’s).

2017-2018: Voyages of Return//Voyages Abroad

  • The Odyssey of Homer (Lattimore translation)

  • Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys)

  • The Shipwrecked Mind (Mark Lilla)

  • The Future of Nostalgia (Svetlana Boym)

  • Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent (Lynada Lynn Haupt)

  • I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life (Ed Yong)

  • The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula Le Guin)

  • Democracy and the Foreigner (Bonnie Honig)

2018-2019: Noble//Ignoble

  • The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation)

  • Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

  • The Theory of the Leisure Class (Thorstein Veblen)

  • Nobility of Spirit (Rob Reimen)

  • The Pleasure Center: Trust Your Animal Instincts (Morten L. Kringelbach)

  • Diners, Bowling Alleys, And Trailer Parks (Andrew Hurley)

  • Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (Greil Marcus)

  • Cuz: An American Tragedy (Danielle Allen)

2019-2020: Success/Failure//Utopia/Dystopia

  • The Theory of the Leisure Class (Thorstein Veblen)

  • The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

  • Cuz: An American Tragedy (Danielle Allen)

  • How to Fail: Everything I've ever Learned from Things Going Wrong (Elizabeth Day)

  • The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation)

  • Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms (Hannah Fry)

  • How Democracy Ends (David Runciman)

  • The Dispossessed (Ursula Le Guin)

2020-2021: Surfaces//Frontiers

  • The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Erving Goffman)

  • Second Skin: Josephine Baker & the Modern Surface (Anne Anlin Cheng)

  • Remarkable Life of the Skin: an intimate journey across our surface (Lyman, Monty)

  • The Face: Cartography of the Void (Chris Abani)

  • The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America (Scott Weidensaul)

  • Frontier (Can Xue)

  • The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir (Wayétu Moore)

  • The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science (Marcus du Sautoy)

Fall 2022/Fall 2023: Persuasion

  • Letters of Mistress Henley Published by Her Friend (Isabelle de Charriere)

  • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Mary Wollstonecraft)

  • Persuasion (Jane Austen)

  • How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (Lisa Feldman Barret)

  • Other authors: Amélie Rorty, Danielle Allen, Sharon Krause