As a history professor, among the challenges I pose for students is to see the links between the past and the present, not simply in events or individuals, but also in concepts and major historical questions in order to encourage deeper, more personal engagement with the past. I try to avoid allowing students to draw too many direct parallels between any particular era and our own, as incidents are contingent on countless factors that are not directly reproduced here and now. Instead I seek to have them problematize their world and all that goes on in it.
In my classes, I immerse students in primary documents and encourage them to develop their own critical analyses and become historical thinkers. Research suggests people acquire a greater skill set by working with information rather than simply absorbing it, so I keep the lecturing to a minimum and students spend more time actively working with materials and each other during class hours. In the process, students find their own voices and grow confident in their abilities. The skills they develop–the ability to critically read a document, to understand it in context, to offer argument and counter-argument, and to communicate in writing–transfer to a range of other life experiences such as participating in active citizenship, penning corporate reports, and producing museum exhibits.
My teaching also introduces students to the digital humanities, methods of learning and sharing that involve often-public digital platforms. My classes have engaged in group blogging (here are two examples) and most recently, students created a digital memorial quilt in my mid-level elective on the AIDS epidemic in America.
Currently I offer classes on American women’s history, civil rights history, African American history, women’s movements, American cities, and general surveys of the American past, often grounded in the Hartford area. In 2021, my class on cities that focused on a local 19th century murder was featured on an episode of WNPR’s Where We Live–check it out!
If you’re interested in working with me, check out the University of Saint Joseph in Connecticut, where I am an associate professor of history and director of the honors program. I won the Father John Stack Award for Teaching Excellence there in 2019.