Teaching

Brief Thoughts on Teaching 

I believe the purpose of education is to change not just how and what we think, but also who we are. In this sense, I espouse a view of education as training in a set of intellectual virtues—cognitive empathy, curiosity, interpretive charity, and epistemic humility—as well as virtues associated with liberal democracy—critical thought, moral integrity, a willingness to actively confront and contest injustice, and solidarity with those less fortunate than us. While I hope that students take from my classes new tools to make sense of the world, I also hope that they are changed in a more fundamental way—not in the sense that they will, by the end of the term, share my particular views or values, but rather that, over the course of our time together, they will come to learn and adopt as their own a certain way of being in the world that arises out of the collective practice of reading, thinking, and deliberating about matters of depth and importance with a diverse group of people in an inclusive environment. This way of being, in my view, is crucial for the flourishing of humane, cohesive, and just democracies, and so I see it as a, if not the, central goal of education today. 

Teaching Expertise

  • Sociology of Culture / Cultural Sociology

  • Sociology of Religion

  • Social and Cultural Theory

  • Theory and Method in Religious Studies​

  • Political Philosophy

Teaching Experience

Instructor, SOC 260 (‘Spirituality, Secularity, and Religion in Sociological Perspective’) Sociology and Legal Studies Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Winter 2024

  • Course description: An introduction to the contemporary sociology of religion. (For the course syllabus see here). 

Instructor, SOC 202 ('Classical Sociological Theory') Sociology and Legal Studies Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Fall 2023 & Winter 2024 

  • Course description: An introduction to the "classics" in sociology. (For the course syllabus see here).


Instructor, S0J95A ('Culture, Identity, and Alterity') Sociology Department, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Fall 2022

  • Course description: How do we come to know who and what we are? What are the social preconditions—cognitive, linguistic, institutional, and ethical—for identity? What are the implications of living in a world where plural, overlapping, and conflicting identities co-exist in close proximity (real or virtual) to one another? And what do we make of the fact that those identities exist not in perfect equality, but rather within and across hierarchical and stratified social orders? In this course, we will examine classical and contemporary sociological responses to these questions. More specifically, this course will cover how sociologists have theorized the social and cultural construction of identity, thereby introducing students to sociological perspectives on individuality, community, solidarity, authority, alterity, exclusion, and stigma. (For the course syllabus see here).


Co-Instructor:   SOC95 ('Postmodernization: Science Under Siege') Sociology Department, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Winter 2021 & Winter 2022 & Winter 2023

  • Course description: Max Weber famously diagnosed the modern world as disenchanted; for him, modernity as an epoch was defined by the rise of rationality and scientific expertise. Yet, in the last decade we have seen the spread of conspiracy theories on social media, widespread skepticism scientific authority and institutions, and the flowering of “fake news.” What explains these developments? In this course, we will use the tools of cultural sociology—which foregrounds the role of meaning and morality in the constitution of modern social life—in order to make sense of our present “post-truth” moment. We will think of science, less as a method by which to attain practical knowledge about the empirical world, and more as a meaning-system that requires moral norms, compelling narratives, social institutions, and carrier groups for its survival and reproduction. And in the process, we will critically interrogate how sociologists have theorized “modernity,” beginning with Weber’s disenchantment thesis. (For the course syllabus see here).


Instructor: PHIL 204 ('Life, Death & Meaning') Philosophy Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Fall 2019 

  • Course Description: Many people wish to live a meaningful life. But what exactly does this mean? Is it even coherent to speak of a life as being full (or void) of meaning? And if it is, does meaning rest in the eye of the beholder or is it open to objective evaluation? Furthermore, are there necessary conditions (e.g. social, cultural or economic) to give a life meaning? And how might the fact of human mortality shape our thinking on the subject? In this course we will consider a variety of philosophical texts, ancient and contemporary, to help us think through these and other relevant questions. We will also, when useful, borrow insights offered by the social sciences. Our aim will be to grapple with the question of meaning in life, both in the abstract and as it relates to our everyday experience. (For the course syllabus see here).


Teaching Assistant: PHIL 296 (‘Animals and Society’) Philosophy Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Winter 2018

  • Course Description: This course introduced students to historical and contemporary debates regarding the treatment of nonhuman animals within Western societies, and explored our ethical responsibilities toward them.


Teaching Assistant: PHIL 347 (‘Moral Responsibility’) Philosophy Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Fall 2017 

  • Course Description: This course focused on contemporary work on the nature of moral responsibility. Questions considered included responsibility for attitudes, the nature of blame, the relevance of personal history to a person’s blameworthiness, the difference between being and holding responsible, and whether moral ignorance is at least a partial excuse for morally wrong conduct.


Teaching Assistant: PHIL 259 (‘Critical Thinking’) Philosophy Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Fall 2017

  • Course Description: This online course aimed to help students to think critically. Students learned how to evaluate arguments, claims, beliefs, as well as how to make solid arguments of their own.


Co-Instructor: RELS 401 (‘Spiritual but not Religious – Honours Seminar’) School of Religion, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Winter 2017

  • Course Description: This was a fourth-year honours seminar with a focus on critically engaging with contemporary ‘Spiritual but not Religious’ (SBNR) discourses. (For the course syllabus, see here).


Teaching Assistant: PHIL 275 (‘Thinking Gender, Sex and Love’) Philosophy Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Fall 2016

  • Course Description: This course sought to examine what is at stake in how we think about gender, sex, and love. Using classical and contemporary philosophical texts we examined presuppositions and alternative possibilities.


Teaching Assistant: RELS 161 (‘Problems in Religion and Culture’), Religious Studies Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Fall/Winter 2016-2017

  • Course Description: This course explored religious issues in culture, literature, politics and social ethics.


Teaching Assistant: PHIL 201 (‘Philosophy and Medicine’), Philosophy Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Winter 2016

  • Course Description: This course was about evidence, diseases and the practice of medicine. Working closely with empirical examples, we looked at some big questions concerning medicine.


Co-Instructor: RELS 401 (‘Spiritual But Not Religious – Honours Seminar’), School of Religion, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Winter 2015

  • Course Description: This was a fourth-year honours seminar with a focus on critically engaging with contemporary ‘Spiritual but not Religious’ (SBNR) discourses. (For course syllabus, see here).


Teaching Assistant: PHIL 115 (‘New Eyes on Ancient Problems’), Philosophy Department, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Fall/Winter 2014-2015

  • Course Description: This course offered an introduction to some of the fundamental problems, concepts and arguments of philosophy. It sought to explore issues including the scope of, human knowledge, the nature of mind, personal identity, free will, the nature of morality, and political theory.​