I want students to see history as both a channel for their curiosity and a tool they can use to help address contemporary problems. 

I do this by providing hands-on experience in researching and sharing findings. My students have created online museum exhibits, conducted oral histories, worked with never-before-seen archives, written letters to public figures about the portrayal of civil rights movement history, and had their work published.

My pedagogical approach utilizes the principles of Universal Design, which maximizes inclusion for all learners. It mainstreams practices that break down barriers for people with disabilities in the knowledge that they stand to benefit all students.

Education has been my full-time occupation since 2013. I’ve taught most major areas of contemporary US history, from Reconstruction to the War on Terror. Much of what I teach is shaped by my broad interests in race, gender, power and social history. 

African American, gender, and social movement history appeal to me because they are lenses through which we can see things anew. Through them, the stale story of US history – so often told as a simplistic progress narrative – is turned inside out and upside down. In all of my teaching, I help students develop their critical faculties by showing them a diverse, complex set of lived historical experiences

Overall my students learn that:

They can use history in their daily lives in order to address present-day challenges.

History is not a set of dates and events to remember, but an interpretive mode that helps us make meaning of the past and present.

Exploring questions about race and gender will help them to critique dominant narratives about US history.

Critical thinking means that they question why something is the way it is, that it requires us to not accept things at face value.