Teaching
I am a dedicated and enthusiastic instructor and my teaching philosophy is grounded in my experience, interests, and passions. In the classroom I value adaptability to student needs, clear communication with consistent review, data driven insights, and a commitment to service and inclusion. My role as an instructor is to inspire students through my academic work and equip them to achieve their personal academic goals, within and beyond our classroom.
Advising and mentoring
While a graduate student at WSU I voluntarily mentored three high-performing undergraduate students, initiating novel research projects with each based on their interests.
I served as the External Examiner for Bashiru Salifu, who earned a Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies from the University of Tromsø (June 2020), with an Excellent rating for their thesis, Climate Change Impact and Traditional Coping Mechanisms of Borana Pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia.
Teaching experience
Undergraduate course, Washington State University, Department of Anthropology, 2016
Instructor for ANTH 130 Great Discoveries in Archaeology. I independently designed and taught a novel introductory anthropology course on archaeology. The course covered basic concepts in the field, prehistory and human origins, and major archeological periods including the Upper Paleolithic. We also discussed major archaeological cultures and features, such as megaliths and complex societies, with a special focus on social structural underpinnings and implications for human cultural evolution.
Lab section, Washington State University, Department of Anthropology, 2013
I was the lab instructor for the Introduction to Physical Anthropology course at WSU for five semesters, which involved two three-hour lab sessions per week. I independently designed a unique lab focused on collaboratively conducting novel biocultural research. This lab included training in scientific methods, research ethics, theory evaluation, statistical analyses in R, and scientific writing. I regularly lectured on specific scientific theories as well as the scientific process. The students and I conducted two novel research projects each semester, which required hands-on, collaborative work.
Undergraduate anthropology courses, Washington State University, Department of Anthropology, 2012
Teaching assistant for ANTH 316 Gender in Cross Cultural Perspective/ANTH 405 Medical Anthropology, Fall 2015; ANTH 203 Peoples of the World, Fall 2013; ANTH 203 Peoples of the World/ANTH 309 Cultural Ecology, Fall 2012. Responsibilities included assisting with course content development, designing evaluation metrics, lecturing, and grading student writing.
