Teaching

In addition to being an empirically-grounded research science, I like to think of sociology as a way to see and understand the world. The late C. Wright Mills called this perspective the “sociological imagination” and described it as the capacity to understand oneself and experiences in broader historical and social structural contexts. In practice, the sociological imagination may both intersect with and diverge from commonsense understandings of individual experiences, social problems, and current events. As a sociology professor, I aim to foster the development of the sociological imagination in my students and introduce them to a variety of tools with which they may come to better understand social forces, processes, and outcomes.

By providing students with tools for understanding the world, opportunities to engage with sociological concepts and each other, and examples of how to use these tools in practice, I aim to introduce students to a way of viewing the world that they might take with them beyond my class.    

Courses Taught

Loyola University Chicago – Sociological Thought (SOCL 205), Cities, Suburbs, and Beyond (SOCL 234), Mass Media and Popular Culture (SOCL 123), Society in a Global Age (SOCL 101)

Columbia College Chicago – Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 101)

Elmhurst College – Social Problems (SOC 301), Society and the Individual (SOC 211)

Illinois Institute of Technology – Introduction to Sociology (SOC 200)