I had it all figured out by the time I was twenty, or at least I thought I did. I was a first-generation college student and one of only a few from my high school that went to a university. Yet I barely passed my first cultural anthropology class. It was not the professor’s fault; he eventually chaired my dissertation many years later. I struggled because that class challenged everything I thought I knew about the world. I may have earned a low C, but I gained a completely new insight that changed my perspective of cultures and people who were different from me. Cultural anthropology became my major, and I went on to learn languages, study abroad, earn fellowships, and eventually acquire a PhD in the discipline. One undergraduate class turned my small world into an enormous field of opportunities to explore new places and connect with people I previously viewed as the Other. This first-hand experience with the way a single course can impact the life of a student informs the way I plan, design, develop and deliver my humanities courses  today. I view each semester as a chance to provide students with tools they can apply for the rest of their life, perhaps not as a professional working in the discipline, but as life-long humanists seeking opportunities to understand, explore and connect with humanity.

Content in my Introduction to the Humanities and African Humanities courses rely on theoretical frameworks from cultural studies and interpretive anthropology that approach the humanities as a repository of symbolic representations communicating shared human experiences in culturally diverse ways. I push students to move beyond memorization of names and dates and to go past simple descriptions by challenging them to situate tangible and intangible cultural expressions within their unique social and historical contexts in order to interpret the messages and meanings communicated by the producer. I also draw from critical theory to compel students to consider the politics of power and representation within the humanities as well as the ways the humanities can serve as a vehicle for autonomy and self-expression. By integrating theoretical approaches from other disciplines such as history, media studies, philosophy, religious studies, and even the STEM fields, I aim to demonstrate the wildly interdisciplinary nature of the humanities and its applicability to a broad range of student backgrounds, academic majors and career goals.

I design class activities with a learner-centered approach with the intention of creating an engaging learning environment through experiential interaction. I aim to build on students’ existing knowledge, experience and interests in order to demonstrate the relevance of the humanities in day-to-day living while also challenging assumptions through guided research and analytical exercises. Online and in-class discussions prompt students to formulate a conclusion using terms and concepts introduced in the lesson with the idea that there are no right or wrong interpretations, only well or poorly formulated analysis. My goal is not to change a student’s perspective to conform to my own, but to empower students to take authority of their own interpretations and the construction of new knowledge. I encourage students to integrate their own experiences and observations, and I lead the way with examples from my experiences conducting ethnographic fieldwork in an Amazighe (Berber) village in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, documenting oral histories in a Tlingit village in Alaska, collecting standardized questionnaires about deity at a Neopagan nudist retreat in Florida, or documenting narratives from Hurricane Opal survivors in the Florida panhandle. I use extra credit bribery to push students to explore the humanities outside of the classroom at local events and venues in order to build new experiences and interactions. At the end of each semester I help each student design a final project that applies to their major or interests. I consistently redesign activities in my classes to better motivate students to become active participants in a construction of knowledge that is uniquely relevant to their lives and educational goals. 

To enhance student success, I push myself to go beyond simply being a subject matter expert by seeking new and innovative ways to enhance the learning experience in my courses. I use Instructional Design (ID) techniques, such as ADDIE, to plan, design, develop, deliver and evaluate my courses with a substantivist approach that accommodates the different needs, strengths, and experiences of a diverse body of students. I integrate Universal Design strategies that incorporate multiple modes of content delivery to account for different learning styles and cultural differences and to create a more inclusive learning environment for students with disabilities. My instructional lessons are always scaffolded to guide students from simple to more complex information to account for differences in previous educational backgrounds. Each class includes an array of diverse artifacts (quizzes, discussions, papers and projects) to ensure an accurate measurement of student capabilities, and I work with professional instructional designers to ensure objectives, instruction and assessments are in alignment. I use dynamic open educational resources (OER) when possible to mitigate educational expenses, and I make full use of the learning management system to facilitate prompt feedback, monitoring, and evaluations so I may modify instructional instruments when necessary. I have also learned through experience that many talented and bright students enter the classroom without the necessary tools to succeed in higher education. In light of this, I provide instructional resources to improve research, writing, studying and test-taking skills. I invest in student success because I consider it a measurement of my own success in the classroom.

Student success outside of the class is also important to me. My goal is to give students more than a few credits on a transcript, I want to open doors to new experiences and possibilities. I passionately promote fellowships, scholarships and study abroad opportunities by holding info-sessions in and outside of class and by assisting students with their applications. I encourage students to pursue international education by sharing my own story as a low-income single-parent in college who acquired fellowship funding to learn foreign languages and study abroad (with a daughter in tow). In recent years I helped two first-generation college students in my African Humanities class become the first at Santa Fe to receive the Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship to study Swahili at the University of Florida. Their success reminds me of why I chose this vocation. By teaching humanities today, I get to launch students into a new world in much as the same way that many years ago a professor launched me.