I have taught two courses at Purdue and worked as a teaching assistant for a bevy of others. I also have educational training from my undergraduate years and prior career. Additionally, I was recognized as the Teaching Assistant of the Year for the Department of Political Science at Purdue University in 2023 and as the Outstanding Independent Instructor for the Department of Political Science at Purdue University in 2024.
Please find details on the courses I have taught as the instructor of record at Purdue University listed below. See the CV for teaching assistant experiences.
Course Description:
This introductory course is designed to provide the background and theoretic tools you need to understand and evaluate U.S. foreign policy, both historical and contemporary. The first part of the class will be theoretically oriented. We will revisit classical international relations theory and establish a general vocabulary and theoretic framework to talk about foreign policy. We will then get more specific, using these resources to illuminate and explore the historical roots of U.S. foreign policy and the influences that shape the U.S.’s engagement with the rest of the world.
Next, we will turn to more contemporary debates surrounding the nature and magnitude of threats facing the United States today. As part of this conversation, we will reconsider the idea of U.S. national interests, what they are right now, and how they might change moving forward. Finally, we will examine the range of policy tools currently available to Washington, including both those that fall under the broad category of unilateral action (diplomacy, foreign aid, military intervention, and covert action) and those that involve more multilateral engagement (involvement in agreements such as NATO and international organizations such as the UN, WTO, and the IMF). Through this, students will explore U.S. foreign policy issues that are relevant today.
Course Description:
How do states make decisions? Is globalization destined to expand? What are the effects of international terrorism? International relations (IR) attempts to grapple with these questions and more. This introductory course will start to build the theoretical toolset needed to answer these questions, by focusing on realism, institutionalism, liberalism, and constructivism along with other basic IR theories. We will discuss a rich set of complex issues, including conflict, trade, foreign policy, and global environmental challenges. While the course will provide only an introduction to these topics, we will develop the critical thinking skills to evaluate both historical and contemporary case studies and better understand an ever-changing world.