Teaching

Political science is especially well suited to a classroom built around inquiry. I encourage students to question familiar accounts of political events, identify the assumptions underlying competing explanations, and revise their views when the evidence warrants it. I also model intellectual humility by treating uncertainty as a reason for further investigation rather than as a failure of expertise.

Students develop these habits most effectively when they participate in the work of the discipline. My courses therefore use structured discussion, document-based analysis, writing assignments, simulations, survey design, and quantitative analysis. These activities make institutional processes and methodological choices concrete while requiring students to explain how they reached a conclusion.

I give students meaningful discretion over topics and applications so they can connect course material to questions they find important. At the same time, assignments are scaffolded around explicit learning objectives and common standards of argument and evidence. Detailed feedback helps students identify both what is working and what they should improve in subsequent work.

A productive classroom also requires access to guidance. I invite questions, provide multiple forms of participation, and make time for individual support when students encounter academic or personal obstacles. Flexibility and rigor are not competing goals: thoughtful support enables more students to meet ambitious expectations.