Teaching
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – W. B. Yeats
My goal as an instructor is to light the fire of critical reasoning and a passion for learning and curiosity in my students. My teaching pedagogy incorporates a multi-dimensional understanding of empirical and theoretical approaches to provide students with a basis for scholarly engagement. I encourage students to connect course materials and ideas to their own experiences and to the world around them. I also encourage students to use their own words and ideas to explain difficult concepts. I foster reflexivity in my students by employing a myriad of teaching strategies including debates, simulation games, role-play, group-workshop, and peer interview.
Class fieldwork on urban tree benefits
I love teaching! I combine abstract and analytical texts with case studies and current events from which students are required to identify active linkages drawn from multimedia sources and everyday experiences. Research and fieldwork are also incorporated into my courses. These combined strategies engender a learner-centered process where students are actively engaged in their own education through the utilization of skills, information, and knowledge acquired. This process also allows for building a learning community that provides students with the opportunity to grasp the importance of collaboration, communication, and knowledge production.
For evaluation, I introduce various types of tests and creative assessments such as free-writes, timed-essays, analysis of print media, documentary reviews, and photo essays, to determine improvement in knowledge and thinking skills. My approach is to always give students a constructive feedback both in and outside of the classroom. I believe that university-level teaching is a privilege and a significant responsibility, involving mentoring and supporting students as they develop skills for future employment and for life more generally.
In summary, my overall goal as a teacher is to foster a passion for learning that goes beyond the classroom and sparks a lifetime of concern and interest in the broader global community.
Community Resilience class, 2023
Courses
Current Courses at Emory University
Spring 2024
ENVS 385 - Special Topics: Environmental Justice
Previous Courses at Other Universities
Portland State, Oregon
GEOG 567/467: Community Resilience in Coupled Socio-Ecological Systems
GEOG 510/410: Advance Urban Geography
GEOG 348U: Cultural and Political Ecology
GEOG 230: Environment and Society
GEOG 363U : Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa
Western University, Canada
Geography of Africa South of the Sahara
World Cities
Foundations of Sustainability and Environmental Policy
Geography of Gender (Guest Lecturer)
University of Waterloo
Waste Planning (Guest Lecturer)
Carleton University
Global Environmental Change and Security (Guest Lecturer)
Guest Lectures
Portland State University
2022
Seminar: Qualitative Analysis (GEOG 507). Qualitative Sampling and Thematic Saturation. October 20.
Seminar: Climate and Society (INTL 407/507). Managed retreat and climate migration: as two distinct responses to climate hazards and ungovernable spaces. May 9.
Research Design (GEOG 522) . Mixed method research and transformative paradigm. April 27.
Change science and adaptation seminar (GEOG 4/512). Trends and challenges in urban resilience to climate change: Are the vulnerable left behind? February 24.
2021
Research Design (GEOG 522) Conducting mixed method and transformative research agenda. April 27.
Geographic Research and Applications (GEOG 523) Societal climate adaptation and ethics of change. February 2.
2020
Research Design (GEOG 522) Conducting mixed method research in an uncertain climate. April 28.
Climate change science and adaptation seminar (GEOG 4/512) March 5.
Building Community Resilience against wicked problems: comparison of Lagos, Manila, and Tokyo
International Planning Seminar on Disaster Resilience (USP 510) Trends and challenges in community resilience: are the vulnerable left behind? Feb 27th.
Geographic Research and Applications (GEOG 523) February 3. Societal climate adaptation and ethics of change.
2019
Climate change science and adaptation seminar (GEOG 4/512) Climate adaptation and the transformation challenge. May 21.
Research Design (GEOG 522) Mixed methods and transformative Paradigm. April 30.
2018
Geographic Thought (GEOG 521) Feminist Geography and Poststructuralist approaches. October 25.
Research Design (GEOG 522) A new research paradigm: Mixed methods and community of practice. May 3.
Geographic Research and Applications (GEOG 523) Managed retreat for Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction: A comparison of three coastal Megacities. March 12.
Climate Change Science and Adaptation seminar (GEOG 4/512) Global Climate change and the adaptation challenge. May 24.
Other Universities
2022
Sustainable Coastal Management, (Instructor, Fall term) Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.
2015
Human Dimensions of Global Climate Change (Instructor, Fall term), University of Waterloo
2014
Waste Planning (Guest lecture), University of Waterloo
Geography of Africa South of the Sahara (Instructor, Fall term) Western University
2013
Foundations of Sustainability and Environmental Policy (Guest lecture), Western University
World Cities (Guest lecture), Western University
Global Environmental Change and Security (Guest lecture), Carleton University
2012
Geography of Africa South of the Sahara (Instructor, Fall), Western University
2011
Geography of Gender (Guest lecture), Western University
2010
Africa South of Sahara (Guest lecture), Western University