Teaching is a circle of care.
Learning is a fundamentally collaborative endeavor.
As a novice brewer and cheesemaker, I grew from studying the skills and philosophies of my mentors. And I felt my passion for craft stoked when these artisans were attentive to my ambitions and when they provided me the opportunity to experiment with my newly acquired knowledge. My goal as an instructor is to cultivate this ethos of collaboration in the classroom and workplace. Toward this objective, applied critical analysis, intellectual creativity, and engaged research are the elemental threads that structure my method and courses.
Train and encourage critical thinking.
Facilitate an environment of intellectual creativity.
Dynamic education is grounded in ongoing engaged research.
Course Designs
Perspectives on Food
How do cultures instill philosophies of what is good to eat, and how do culinary habits in turn engender cultures? How does eating, cooking, and sharing food weave the personal and professional relationships that animate everyday life? How can lumps of sugar turn the wheels of imperialism, or platters of sushi mourn a loss? What determines the taste of a local ale versus a mass-produced lager? What happens when the things we eat have a mind of their own?
This course presents a cross-cultural look at food, the creation and circulation of alimentary commodities, and how tastes are made and disseminated.
Culture & Consumption
A cross-cultural look at gift giving, the creation and circulation of commodities, and how tastes are made and disseminated. This course explores branded commodities, materialism as a factor in cultural change, global consumer cultures, and emerging local alternatives. By drawing on ethnographic and popular writings, documentaries and experiences, we’ll examine cultures of consumption from the perspective of consumers, certainly, but also from the various perspectives of farmers, marketers, chefs, and artisans. In doing so, we’ll tackle three elemental questions:
How do people relate to others through things?
How do the things we create in turn create our worlds?
How do the things we consume come to consume us?
Introduction to Anthropology
This course approaches anthropology as a diverse discipline, considering the fundamental questions and research methodologies of cultural anthropology, archaeology, medical anthropology, and environmental and historical anthropology. By drawing on four anthropological monographs, documentaries, and the experiences of anthropologists in the field, we will examine the insights anthropology can reveal, as well as the practical and ethical struggles it faces and generates. In doing so, we will create a foundation for understanding anthropology as a practice of approaching human variation in our everyday lives.