Teaching Statement

…I do now remember a saying, ‘The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.’ –Shakespeare, As You Like It

My passions are writing, reading, and thinking about writing and reading. Trained as a scholar of Renaissance and late medieval British literature, I practice a humanist pedagogy that is tempered by the critiques of posthumanism and is grounded in literary theory and criticism, particularly ecocritical and cultural studies methodologies. I believe texts operate in the material world, both reflecting and actively making meaning in society; studying literature and writing allows me and my students to explore, trouble, and add to this meaning-making. Furthermore, because of the increasing importance of ecological awareness in the twenty-first century, I emphasize sustainability education through my choice of reading assignments and class activities, and I give students the opportunity to extend and enhance their classroom learning by incorporating a community garden-based service-learning component into my courses. I have used this approach in teaching both English and non-English majors in courses of environmental literature, literary theory, British and American literature, and first-year rhetoric/composition.

As an early modernist, I include Shakespeare plays and other works of Renaissance-era literature on the syllabi of many of my classes. For example, in my “Trees and Forests in Literature” course, I introduce my students to John Evelyn’s Sylva (1664), a treatise urging English landowners to plant and cultivate more trees so that the Royal Navy might have surplus timber. Students usually struggle with this reading, but it gives them valuable context for thinking about the forest of Arden in As You Like It and the Athenian wood of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, texts that they enjoy reading and discussing. This historical grounding helps students shy away from overly presentist readings, while they are simultaneously encouraged to think ecocritically about the role of the environment in these plays and what Shakespeare might communicate to us today about issues such as deforestation, species extinction, and climate change. I teach plays like The Tempest in the light of important postcolonial discussions but also consider its environmental depictions as well. I’ve also taught this play in a topics in British literature course, “Outlaws and Outcasts,” in which we questioned Shakespeare’s representation of Caliban as a monstrous other. Additionally, this course allowed me to teach Milton’s Paradise Lost in conjunction with the British Romantic reception of Satan via Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and her husband’s Prometheus Unbound. These types of blended courses enable an approach to early modern literature that is culturally relevant while remaining aware of historical precedent.

My approach to teaching medieval literature is similar. In my “Outlaws and Outcasts” seminar, I encourage students to reevaluate their perception of the monster Grendel in the context of sympathetic receptions such as John Gardner’s novel Grendel. In this course, in addition to Old English translations, students also encounter Middle English when they read medieval Robin Hood ballads, alongside their Elizabethan counterparts, before studying more recent “Robin Hoods” such as Ela the Outcast of Penny Dreadful notoriety and the mysterious anarchist “V” from Alan Moore’s comic book V for Vendetta. I emphasize the writings of and about women in earlier periods, such as the anonymous Old English poem “The Wife’s Lament” and the religious writings of anchorites like Julian of Norwich. I take a holistic approach to the Middle Ages, including material from the Anglo-Saxon period such as the Exeter Book riddles, in addition to the later familiar Arthurian romances of the high medieval period and canonical works like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I like to emphasize the material production and reception of medieval texts in the context of manuscript studies as well as animal studies, parchment being made from animal skins, taking the opportunity to blend ecocritical considerations with more traditional understandings of the literature of the period.

In the classroom itself, I blend a process-oriented approach with a form of critical pedagogy that requires me to practice reflexivity and acknowledge my own position of privilege as both authority figure in the classroom and as a white male. As Janet Emig and other process theorists point out, teachers and students play alternating roles on the educational stage. I am constantly learning from my students, and I’ve learned to be aware of my own positionality in relation to that of students. I recognize that process is important for both students and teachers and that students’ unique backgrounds and social situations inherently bring valuable knowledges into the classroom and to texts we study. I am inspired by the engaged pedagogies of critical theorists and practitioners like bell hooks and Paulo Freire. The concept of “teaching to transgress,” made famous by hooks, resonates with my commitment to cultural studies methodology, which attempts to make visible hegemonic forces of oppression active in our increasingly politicized world. Following hooks, I believe that a life devoted to learning can be a counter-hegemonic act, “a fundamental way to resist every strategy of white racist colonization” (Teaching to Transgress, 2). As a white male, I strive to be extra-aware of my positions of privilege within systems of power like those at large institutions such as universities. I believe that acknowledging this positionality is a crucial step for people like me in working against oppressive systems that exclude and ostracize. Education at all levels should be open, accessible, and inviting. Making a space for those who have been oppressed and creating opportunities for genuinely open dialogue in classroom settings are my highest priorities. Furthermore, I see eco-pedagogies that emphasize social and environmental justice as essential for the re-adjustment of our priorities as a society as a whole. We stand little chance of surviving in the twenty-first century for very long without a unified global commitment to address our current environmental crisis as the crisis that it is.

Building on this base, I have integrated service-learning and experiential learning opportunities for students into my courses. In particular, I use themes such as the politics of food, sustainable communities, and trees and forests in literature, in conjunction with community gardening. Campus community gardens connect students to one another as well as the larger community outside the university. Students who participate in this component of my courses are able to deepen their engagement with the various social and political issues they are researching, exploring, and writing about. The “real-world” dimension of community gardening encourages them to see and experience material realities they might have otherwise written about only in the abstract. They are able to carry on meaningful and relevant discussions with other students and teachers as well as community members in a relaxed setting that also introduces them to important sustainability issues they will surely encounter in the coming years. I have found this experiential approach to learning effective, but I also continue improving my service-learning curriculum as I mature as a teacher and as I strive to make interdisciplinary connections and alliances in higher education settings. I think that it only makes sense that I learn just as much from, if not more than, my students learn from me.