Teaching
Teaching Philosophy
My number one goal as an instructor is for students to leave my class thinking about the world a bit differently. Whether students start seeing their own neighborhood in a new light or critically thinking about news coverage of places they have never visited, I am invested in supporting them in their intellectual pursuits (and perhaps recruiting a few more geographers along the way!). I encourage curiosity and non-judgmental communication in my classroom and offer students a space to learn and teach alongside their peers. I also recognize the increasing difficulty the COVID-19 pandemic, economic insecurity, and general anxieties of our time can make showing up in the classroom difficult for most of us. In this regard, I encourage students to keep an open line of communication with me so I can support them as best as I can. We are living in an ever-changing, complex world and I hope my classroom is a place for them to explore, learn, create, and grow as students, as scholars, and as people.
Courses Developed at UNC Chapel Hill
World Regional Geography
Course Objectives: The purpose of this course is to provide you with an interactive, engaged, and informative survey of the regions of the world through a geographic lens. We will learn about the major regions of the world, their physical and cultural characteristics, and the relationships between humans and their environment in each region. We will pay special attention to how dividing the world regionally contributes to our understanding of people and places. Together, we will develop a deeper understanding of the world around us by learning about local, regional, and global processes. Though not all of you will choose to pursue a major or minor in Geography, you will all come away from this class with new ways of seeing, understanding, and relating to the world around you. By the end of this course, you will be able to:
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Identify the major regions of the world and their unique physical, political, and cultural characteristics.
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Describe the relationship between humans and the environment in each of the world’s major regions.
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Explain why certain regions of the world are economically, socially, or environmentally connected to one another.
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Apply core geographical concepts to explain global phenomena including climate change, economic inequality, and nationalism.
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Analyze the values and limitations of dividing the world into regions.
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