I lecture three undergraduate courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Intro to Sociology, Classical Social Theory and Intro to STS. I am also instructor of two online courses for an accredited masters degree program offered by the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. In addition, I have been a TA for undergraduate courses at UW and for a graduate seminar at the New School for Social Research.
In Spring of 2020, as COVID19 fears caused universities to switch to all-online courses, I was able to pivot and seamlessly deliver course content seamlessly, interactively, and with as close as possible to the in-classroom experience for the students.
Undergraduate Teaching
SOC 211: The Sociological Enterprise (general survey of sociology) (Lecturer)
This course is an introduction to the field of sociology. Students will engage with classic and contemporary ideas in sociology as well as the many subfields within it. We cannot cover everything in sociology, but the course will provide a basic introduction to general sociological topics and some of the most popular and interesting areas of inquiry in the field. Three important dynamics will guide our inquiry: the mind-expanding properties of the sociological perspective, the way in which sociology can help us to make sense of big changes in society, and the potential for sociology to be useful for efforts at social change.
Syllabus:
SOC 475: Classical Sociological Theory (Lecturer)
Several historical figures—e.g. Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and W.E.B. Du Bois—continue to exert a profound influence on our understanding of modern society. This course pursues an in-depth study of these and other classical social thinkers. It traces the development of classical sociology as a response to the central political, industrial, and social revolutions that have shaped Western society during the past three centuries.
How can we understand the relationship between individual biography and collective social forces? And what is the relevance of classical sociology for understanding contemporary society and today’s social problems? We explore these and other questions by reading from the original texts, highlighting key passages and concepts, and understand how these early social scientists built argumentation and theory.
Syllabus:
STS 201: Where Science & Technology Meet Society (Lecturer)
What is science? What, if anything, is special about the way that scientists and engineers generate knowledge? Rarely do we have the opportunity to reflect on why it is that we are taught to know in this way. This course identifies and questions common (but often unstated) assumptions about what science is and howitworks, with the aim of revealing the connections between the STEM fields and our social, cultural, economic, and political lives.
The first unit introduces central ideas in Science and Technology Studies (STS), a field that use perspectives from the humanities and social sciences to analyze STEM. We will examine whether the scientific method is an accurate description of how science and technology development operate in practice, and if not, what kinds of descriptions might be put in their place. We examine how culture, economics, and politics interact with science and technology development. We will ask who benefits from how particular research agendas or new technologies are designed, and who bears the risks of living with uncertain science or dangerous technologies. The final unit explores how societies can engage with controversial issues in STEM. After exploring the rationales for and barriers to involving non-scientists in decision-making, we will collectively choose several controversial current topics to explore in depth (such as stem cell research, digital media and copyright, or bioterrorism), and one of these topics will be the basis for an in-class exercise in participatory science policy. This course is aimed at students with backgrounds in either the sciences or the humanities who want to think more critically about the interactions between of science, technology, and society. It will allow students in the STEM fields to reflect on the implications of their work for society, and students in the humanities and social sciences will develop a better understanding of how to study STEM as a social activity. There are no prerequisites for this course.
Syllabus:
SOC 125: Contemporary American Society (TA)
What kind of country do we live in? This course provides an extended answer to this question. It also explores the implications of that answer for understanding, and making progress in solving, some of the social problems that confront America today.
This course provides an extended answer to the question of What kind of a society is the United States? It also explores the implications of that answer for understanding and making progress on solving some of the problems that confront America today. Our discussion revolves around five key values that most Americans believe this society should realize:
1. Freedom: the idea that members of the society should be able, to the greatest degree possible, to live their lives as they wish;
2. Prosperity: the idea that the society’s economy should generate the highest possible standard of living;
3. Efficiency: the idea that the economy should be maximally precise in allocating product to needs and wants, and maximally efficient in productive use of scarce resources;
4. Fairness: the idea that members of the society should enjoy equal protection of the law and equal opportunity to make something of their lives;
5. Democracy: the idea that public decisions should reflect the collective will of equal citizens, not powerful and privileged elites.
Our basic question is: To what degree does contemporary American society realize these values and how might it do a better job? A second but important question for us is: How do social scientists go about answering such questions.
Graduate Teaching
FIN 512 – The Political Economy of Money and Banking (Lectuter/Online)
The main objective of the course is to provide a critical study of money and banking. What is money? Where did it come from? How do economists of different schools treat money in their theories and models? Where do these theories fall flat? We also consider sociological and anthropological approaches to money and banking, and look at newer topics related to digital currencies.
Syllabus:
DFIN 535- Blockchain Technology and the Developing World (Lecturer/Online)
The main objective of the course is to provide a critical study of how the under-development of financial and institutional systems in developing countries may be hindering growth and understand if there are opportunities for digital currency-based models to accelerate/leapfrog phases of development
Syllabus:
GECO 5140: Historical Foundations of Political Economy (TA)
This course provides an introduction to the history of classical economic thought. Classical economics provides important building blocks for an understanding of modern capitalism, because it attempts to integrate its economic analysis with social class, income distribution, real competition, technological change, the world economy, and with the historical place and limits of industrial capitalism. As such, it may help broaden and challenge the analytical scope of much contemporary economic thought. This particular course is the first of a two-part sequence, and focuses on Smith, Ricardo, and Marx, and on salient discussions and elaborations of their work.