My teaching philosophy

I am inspired by bell hook’s insistence that the classroom be a space of liberation.

The classroom is a laboratory where future worlds are created, tested out, and enacted, and for that, the rules of the present world - including coercive and punitive methods in teaching - must be questioned and put aside.

My teaching practice is constantly evolving, but the principles on which I base my teaching are firm. I aim to inspire, to encourage, to awaken.

I aim to inspire students to ask the right questions: those that interrogate the very principles of our being-in-the-world as we know it, those that go beyond our worlds into future potentialities where power is shared and used collectively for the common good rather than for maintaining oppressive and extractive social hierarchies. I use my many fieldwork stories abundantly and honestly to inspire my students to go into ethnographic research with integrity and reflexivity. I share my vulnerabilities and uncertainties as an anthropologist and a human being, and invite students to grow accustomed to sitting with the discomfort of the complexity of open questions. I share my passion for research by connecting dots that may inspire fascinating research questions for my students.

I encourage community and cooperation through classroom practices structured around group work and peer learning. Students need different kinds of support: for some, more structure is needed; for others, space to unleash creativity is what leads to deep learning. I design assessments with a view on encouraging the students to let their strengths shine, and to improve the skills that they feel should be improved. In other words, assessments are student-led and the diversity and originality of forms of assessment are always highlighted in students’ evaluations. For example, in my course Ethnographies of crime and policing, I asked students to make an annotated music playlist on crime and policing, and link songs with class discussions. I encourage students to engage with contemporary events and processes by linking theory, class discussions, and teaching material to current debates in the media, or cultural products that they are familiar with - from television series to music, films, or memes. My classes are always interactive, and I make space for everyone to participate in the debate; I also make sure that underrepresented groups feel welcome, respected, and encouraged to participate. I particularly welcome personal experiences as illustrations of theoretical points made in class, to enliven the conceptual world and give shape to otherwise dry and abstract theories. I also encourage students to ask for help and support; this is a skill that we tend to learn too late in life, regardless of who we are. Students need to know that we have their backs and that they can rely on us for support for their educational success. For that, I have gone out of my way to encourage students who showed signs of disengagement to complete my courses.

Education should awaken students to the possibilities of engaging meaningfully with the world and with each other. That means highlighting the relevance of class discussions and teaching material to the students’ own lives, future careers, and collective aspirations. I use my experience in the non-profit sector to reveal the world of possibilities that anthropology opens for students, either in the field of activism and collective action, social inclusion projects of all kind, in development, or in policy analysis and advice. But that also means broadening the horizon of possibilities to engage in the struggle for another, better world. I also aim to awaken my students’ curiosity by asking questions that make them look at their own experiences through an anthropological lens.