DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 

I am an associate professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University. My academic interests focus on relationships among communication, urban culture, ethnography, media studies, and community. This work is the focus of my teaching and research at DePaul.

 

My teaching philosophy promotes active, cooperative, and experiential learning in an effort to encourage students to think about a broader relationship among communication studies, a liberal arts education, and their abilities to participate in public life in meaningful ways. I use a variety of large-group and small-group discussion techniques to achieve three inter-related goals in the classes I teach. First, I want to help students master course content. Second, I offer students tools to think and read more critically. Third, I want to present a broader ethical framework to students that will help them develop a capacity to consider social and cultural contexts from the standpoint of others. Ultimately, there are many connections between my teaching philosophy and DePaul’s mission. Both “emphasize skills and attitudes that educate students to be lifelong, independent learners” and both emerge from a belief that faculty should engage the people living in Chicago and its surrounding areas. DePaul’s pedagogical and urban missions contributed greatly to my desire to join the faculty and sustain my commitment to this institution.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.