My Teaching
Since I began teaching in Warwick's English department in 2011 I have taught a large number of seminar classes on the two first year undergraduate modules Modern World Literatures and Modes of Reading.
The first is designed around the contemporary resurgence of critical interest in the issue of world literature (Franco Moretti being a major influence behind the construction of the syllabus). Texts taught on this module include Goethe's 'Faust', Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House', T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land', Bertolt Brecht's 'Mother Courage' and Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame'.
The second is an introduction to literary theory encompassing many of the traditional paradigms of theoretical practice, including Marxism, postcolonialism, feminism and poststructuralist theories of authorship. Literary and cultural theorists taught on this module include Raymond Williams, Franz Fanon, Edward Said, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Viktor Shklovsky and Simone de Beauvoir. In the current academic year (2014/15) I am leading seven classes across both of these modules.
I also have experience teaching at honours level, having taught seminars on the honours modules Literary and Cultural Theory and Explorations in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies.
In addition I have experience writing and delivering large groups lectures at both first year and honours level. In the last three years I have delivered lectures on Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and Marx's 'Capital' (both available here as audio files), as well as a lecture on Walter Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' and on cultural responses to the rise of finance capital.
My teaching philosophy is based around the need to encourage active student participation, using a predominantly question-based methodology to produce student led seminar discussions. Another priority is the maintenance of high academic standards in seminar discussions, achieved by cultivating a safe and hospitable environment which encourages students to take risks and have the confidence to engage effectively with challenging content.
In 2012 I formalized this philosophy by completing Warwick University's IAPP Postgraduate Teaching Award, for which I received a letter of special commendation from the Board of Examiners. In 2014 I added to this internal teaching qualification by becoming an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I was nomiated for a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013 and again in 2015.
