Teaching

I have taught in various capacities for over ten years, primarily in the field of religious studies but also in language. In religious studies courses, whether introductory or more advanced, my main goal is to help students appreciate religious traditions on their own terms, varied and complicated as those terms often are, and to cultivate an ability to apprehend them as both product and productive of human worlds. Using critical and comparative tools, my courses seek not only to challenge assumptions about what religion is and does but also to offer students tools to envision and realize better futures for themselves and others. My approach to teaching Sanskrit and Classical Tibetan mirrors the method by which I learned: measured exposure to grammar and vocabulary, manageable formative homework exercises, regular quizzes in class, and summative final exams at an appropriately challenging level. 

Photo: Yellowstone River, Montana