Teaching Philosophy

In undergraduate courses, I challenge traditional definitions of “medieval” by emphasizing multiculturalism and connections among Roman and Byzantine provinces in the Mediterranean, Anatolia, and areas beyond Europe. My classes examine material culture sources by emphasizing the tangible and visual properties of material objects that we view firsthand. Because our understanding of late antique and medieval architecture and objects is often mediated by technology—when we view art via photographs or experience monuments through video or 3D models, for instance—I am interested in ways digital methods and tools can enhance coursework through hands-on interrogation of digitized source material. I also use technology to augment the classroom experience, emphasizing a multi-sensory understanding of art. For these approaches, I received the New Media Lab’s Dewey Digital Teaching Award in 2012.

My classes critique digital resources as potential immersive experiences or secondary literature, and discuss social structures as contexts for object- and meaning-making. Digital pedagogy challenges students to examine how their own techniques analyzing and critiquing sources are, in part, products of their contemporary social contexts. Incorporating information architecture and the use of digital tools and methods empowers students to enhance scholarly arguments and reach broader audiences.

With over a decade of experience in the college classroom, I have taught digital history at Michigan State University (MSU); art history at MSU, Hunter College, Montclair State University, and City College of New York (CCNY); honors Digital Humanities at Baruch College; and skills workshops for faculty and graduate students at MSU and The Graduate Center, CUNY.

My teaching has been informed by my role in LEADR, where I also consult on curriculum development, facilitate digital pedagogy, and advise student research. The lab’s mission is to enrich research opportunities for history and anthropology students. I have collaborated with faculty and graduate assistants to design lesson plans for over forty graduate and undergraduate courses, implementing student projects that range from maps to online exhibits to data visualizations. For more on LEADR, see the project page.

Courses Taught

DIGITAL HUMANITIES
  • History Harvest: Eastside Foodways (History/Museum Studies seminar)
  • Doing Digital History (methods, co-taught with Brandon Locke),
    general topics and ancient/medieval topics
  • Digital Humanities and the Modern City, Feit Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar, (co-taught with John Maciuika)
INTERMEDIATE ART HISTORY
  • Medieval Art (also a Digital Humanities minor elective)
  • Ancient Art (LEADR/Art History collaboration, co-taught with Jon Frey)
  • Medieval Architecture
  • Romanesque and Gothic Art
  • Northern Renaissance Art
SURVEY ART HISTORY
  • Ancient and Medieval Art in Western Civilization
  • Art in Non-Western Societies
  • Introduction to Visual Arts of the World
INTERDISCIPLINARY
  • Development of the Silk Road (Graduate Teaching Assistant)

Pedagogical Writings

“Teaching with Foldscope” (in Microcosmos)
“Digital Archaeology Across Disciplines” (in Day of Archaeology)
“Collaborative Definitions” (in AHTR)
“Recreating Byzantine Architecture” (in Experiments in Art History)

Assignments

resource analysis
curatorial paper
comparison paper
iconographic analysis
visual analysis

Workshops Led

MSU CAMPUS ARCHAEOLOGY PROGRAM     
  • Artifact Photography and Documentation            
  • Art Direction and Photography for Social Media Outreach
  • Blogging as Public Archaeology
MSU SCIENCE FESTIVAL
  • Microscopy: Art and Observation at Microscopic Scale
MSU DH WORKSHOP SERIES
  • Introduction to 3D Modeling with Photogrammetry               
  • Getting Started in the Digital Humanities: Beginner Tools
CLASSROOM WORKSHOPS
  • Building an Academic Portfolio Website
  • Image Based Research (Citing and Attributing Media)
  • Career Options for Art History Majors
  • Digital History Research, Methods, and Opportunities
  • Presenting Research with Story Maps
  • Documenting Events with TimelineJS
GC DIGITAL FELLOWS WORKSHOP SERIES
  • Storytelling with Maps: Intro to Mapping with CartoDB        
  • Introduction to WordPress
  • Intro to Image Editing
  • Organizing Image Collections for Research