Enthusiastic teacher, experienced with student management, in Anthropology and Religion.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY INSIGHTS

My teaching focuses on considering Anthropology and Religion through a decolonizing perspective and emphasizes equipping students with research tools and critical thinking skills. Anthropology classes from different subjects and classes on religion are great places to help students develop analytical skills, such as distinguishing between arguments and evidence, interpret data, and critical thinking. Achieving these goals is at the center of my teaching philosophy.

COURSES TAUGHT

Religion and Science, University of Toronto (Winter, 2024)

This course examined how religion and science are deeply interconnected in ways that matter for everyone, regardless of their ideological convictions or disciplinary expertise. Students learned how to understand what is at stake epistemologically and ethically when engaging in public debate. Specifically, we considered how authority, evidence, narrative, social context and debate are key to the ways that people discuss the relationship of religion and science. Using readings on the relationship between modern Science and Christianity, we examined how ideas of rationality and secularism contribute to colonial systems and current racial discriminatory policies.

COURSES DESIGNED

Enchantment, Disenchantment, Re-enchantment

This course considers the concepts of “magic”, “science” and “religion” in historical context, questioning their meaning in the contemporary world. Approaching secularism as more than a natural historical unfolding, and instead as a normative perception of modernity, the course explores the idea of a “dis-enchanted” world as a political and, many times, colonial project. Students will learn to think critically about the concept of a post-secular or re-enchanted world, and to evaluate it from our vantage point in the 2020’s.

TEACHING SUPPORT

• Christianity, University of Toronto (Fall, 2023)

  • GUEST LECTURES: Christianity and the Enlightenment; Christianity and Colonization

  • CLASS ACTIVITIES: Led discussions around bible passage translations, their contexts, and implications for minority groups.

GUEST LECTURES

Graduate Level

• Method and Theory, University of Toronto (Topic: Recognizing Ritual: Things, Texts, People)

• Gender, Development, and Public Policy, University of Toronto (Topic: Religion and Gender in Brazil)

Undergraduate Level

• Material Religion, University of Toronto (Topic: The Materiality of the Mega Church)

• Anthropology of Secularism, University of Toronto (Topic: Public Religions and Secular Reactions)