Teaching

Early in graduate school, I heard someone say, “I’m not a philosopher, I teach and do philosophy, there’s a difference.” At the time, I was unsure of which identity and career path I would, or should, choose. That line stuck with me. But as I began to teach my own courses, I came to realize that these identities should not, and cannot, be neatly separated. I am a philosopher because I teach, and I teach in a way that invites students to become philosophers too. My pedagogical approach encourages students to not only learn about philosophy, but to live it, question it, and for at least the time they are in my class, to claim it as their own.

I've had over four years of collegiate teaching, including being the primary instructor of PHI 015: Introduction to Bioethics in Summer 2025. For which, I received a nomination for University of California, Davis' Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award. Additionally, I have been a Teaching Assistant for many courses, including:

PHI 001 "Introduction to Philosophy"Fall 2022, 24, 25 Spring 2024.
PHI 007: Philosophical Perspectives of Sexuality - Fall 2021; Winter 2023, 24, 25, 26, Summer 1&2 2026 (upcoming).
PHI 015: Introduction to Bioethics – Spring 2025, 26.
PHI 024: Introduction to Ethics - Spring 2022, 2023; Fall 2023.

Below I will outline some of my favorite projects or memories from teaching at Davis.

Some Fun Slides

I love making fun, engaging slides for my students! Here are some slides from PHI 007: The Philosophy of Sex, focused on the topic of objectification in video games.

In these slides, we will look more closely at the concept of objectification using Martha Nussbaum's seminal paper on the topic. Nussbaum's approach involves taking case of objectification and trying to tease apart their features for moral evaluation. As you will see, Nussbaum thinks that there are 7 different ways in which someone (or a group) can be objectified and not all are bad -- some reflect a type of ideal sexual state, of losing oneself to passion with a sexual partner. Others, however, are more sinister and problematic.

For more information about the content discussed, see Martha Nussbaum's "Objectification" and Anita Sarkeesian's video "Women as Background Decoration" in which she applies Nussbaum's theory to objectification in contemporary video games. .