Teaching and Affiliations

I teach a summer course that examines the spectrum of ways that culture impacts global social and political dynamics.

Utilizing an anthropological methodological framework, students study the effects of cultural difference – and human social and biological development – on global phenomena such as human rights law, armed conflict, economic inequality, international cooperation, and diplomacy.

At Mercy I teach a class called World Cultures, which is an introductory course to the anthropological and political aspects of cultural differences. A spectrum of issues concerning human origins and expansion, and regional and linguistic differences, are addressed.

I also teach a Capstone class in which students work with me to write a thesis project that draws upon the knowledge they have attained throughout their courses to explore a new topic that interests them. The capstone project provides students with the necessary research, argumentation, and writing/presentation skills for graduate studies.

In South Korea, I taught undergraduate and postgraduate classes dealing with: Comparative cultural/political systems; Anthropological approaches to issues of globalization; and Ethnographic research methodologies.

I drew on diverse forms of literature, ranging from established International Relations theories to ethnographic case studies. Typically, the first half of my lectures would deal with the theoretical issues at hand, the different ideas and academic approaches to those ideas, while the second half was used to relate those issues to practical, real life situations.