Teaching Philosophy

My teaching statement is here. Both the philosophy and this document are, not surprisingly, works-in-progress.

Teaching is particularly exhilarating for me; I see it as a complementary part of who I am as a researcher and scholar. My central goal as a teacher is to create an intellectual community in which students openly engage with each other and with information and arguments from all sides of a debate. I believe that encouraging students to be curious and to discuss important, relevant political ideas in a thoughtful and reasoned manner is crucial for the health of our political system and citizenry. My courses are designed to accomplish these goals through dialogue, varied assignments and learning activities, and student research in the context of the current political world.

Syllabi & Material from My Classes

While at Duke, I developed and taught two classes: Scandal and Reform in American Politics (Spring 2006) and Analyzing Election 2006 (Spring 2007). Both were conducted as upper level seminars. Scandal was a more traditional class, but we incorporated student-made podcasts into the course. This assignment was beneficial for students because they learned a new skill and because they learned a great deal from other students' work. Another benefit was that it saved class time for course material and discussion instead of student presentations. Analyzing 2006 was more demanding. Students developed research questions and hypotheses and then conducted a statistical analysis using newly released data from the 2006 election. Topics included issue voting (e.g. Iraq), partisanship, the effects of gender, and candidate spending. The course included many of the standard articles in the voting behavior and campaigns and elections literatures as well as newer research, but the central goal of the class was for students to learn how to conduct academic research. It was, overall, very successful; the work my students did is very impressive!

Syllabi from the two courses:
Scandal and Reform in American Politics: Syllabus
Analyzing Election 2006: Syllabus

I am happy to share material from the class, including assignments and copies of readings, with anyone. Please contact me if you are interested.

Teaching Experience

DUKE UNIVERSITY, Department of Political Science

Analyzing Election 2006, Spring 2007.
Scandal and Reform in American Politics, Spring 2006.
Campaigns and Elections, Spring 2005, Teaching Assistant to Professor Allan Kornberg.
Introduction to American Government, Fall 2003 and 2004, Teaching Assistant to Professor David Paletz.
Preparing Future Faculty Program Fellow, Duke University, 2005-2006.

SMITH COLLEGE, Department of Government

Public Opinion and the Media, Fall 2001, Teaching Assistant to Professor Howard Gold.
Writing Tutor, All Subjects, Fall 2001.