Teaching Philosophy

My pedagogical approach is rooted in the same commitments that animate my research: ethical technology use, inquiry-led learning, a focus on method, and situated knowledge. I integrate conversations about technology into the classroom, asking students to think about how they can use emerging technologies in ways that complement critical thinking, communication, and creativity. As an instructor, I center student-led inquiry and method to create an environment where students learn to craft questions, apply course concepts to their everyday lives, and experiment with different approaches to a given topic. Drawing on my experiences as a teacher and learner across cultures, my approach focuses on training students to appreciate how knowledge is grounded in particular worldviews and sociohistorical contexts. Central to this work is building courses around diverse viewpoints with respect to gender, race, geography, and class while also exploring how forms beyond academic writing—such as film, zines, and podcasts—can communicate other sorts of ideas and stories.

Courses Designed (Syllabi available upon request)

Course Description: This course focuses on how we can use social science approaches to critically examine emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) models and algorithms. The challenge of studying these technologies is that they are both highly complex and global in reach. Our overarching goal in this course, therefore, will be to equip ourselves with analytical and research tools to think about the varied building blocks that constitute AI and algorithms, including technical decisions, labor practices, digital infrastructures, and data collection. We also pay particular attention to AI and algorithms as global—technical systems produced by workers located in far-flung locations and technologies whose effects are felt in varied social, cultural, and political contexts across the world.

Course Description: What makes a language “official”? How long can we leave someone “on read”? Why do we still need human translators? Is it okay to break up with someone via WhatsApp? This course explores such questions by examining language as a dynamic social and cultural phenomenon. Together, we will learn to recognize and appreciate the work language does in everyday life—shaping our relationships with one another and to the broader world. This course surveys foundational concepts and methods for studying the relationship between language, culture, and society. While it offers an overview of linguistic anthropology, we will also draw on other disciplines, such as sociolinguistics, philosophy, and applied linguistics, in addition to essays, podcasts, and short stories that raise crucial questions about language.

Course Description: This course offers an overview of anthropological approaches to studying the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This seminar’s overarching goal is to equip students with the analytical tools necessary to examine the MENA region in all its social, political, cultural, and historical complexities. As a discipline, anthropology offers a set of frameworks and methods, particularly long-term ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation, for examining how broader processes shape human experience and everyday life. We will ask how anthropology—as well as related disciplines like history, human geography, urban studies, and political science—has sought to illuminate the diverse experiences of peoples across the MENA region through analytical attention to values, desires, beliefs, practices, and social interactions.

Course Description: How do social media algorithms predict what content comes next? How are AI models made? Is everyone doomscrolling, or is it just me? This course focuses on how we can use social scientific methods to explore these questions, investigating how technologies are made, maintained, and used. The study of technologies can be challenging, given that their internal workings and programming are often opaque to users. Scholars in fields such as science and technology studies, anthropology, and sociology have historically used the phrase “black box” to describe this lack of transparency. Over the course of this semester, we will explore a variety of research methods to think about how we might peer into the black box. Along the way, we will also consider how people use technologies in ways that are not anticipated by their designers.

Classes Taught

As Lead Instructor:

The Politics of Technology in the Arab World (Fall 2024)

The Sijal Institute for Language and Culture, Amman, Jordan

Course Description: This course focuses on the social, political, and ethical dimensions of technology in the Arabic-speaking world. Engaging with an array of materials, including historical and anthropological writing, films, and short stories, we will ask how technological systems structure everyday life and shape what kinds of political action are possible. This course raises the question: how might examining technology from the perspective of the Arab world reshape how we conceptualize its sociopolitical impacts?

As Assistant Graduate Instructor:

ANTH2008W: Foundations of Anthropological Thought (Spring 2023)

George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

Course Description: This course traces the development of anthropological thought in historical context, exploring the basic concepts and theories of contemporary anthropology. This is a Writing Intensive Course designed for junior or senior year students.

ANTH1004: Language in Culture and Society (Fall 2022)

George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

Course Description: This course focuses on the comparison and analysis of how cultures use language to communicate, and the relationship of language to human nature, gender, race, class, artistic expression, and power.