My teaching specialties span from large introductory classes to rigorous theoretical upper-level undergraduate classes and many in between. As expanded below, I have a focus on undergraduate teaching but have run courses abroad and am an active graduate advisor of students with common interests.
Courses Taught
My position teaches six classes per year, yet for reasons such as conducting a course abroad or directed studies I have gone above this requirement in several years. My teaching role takes on a vast breadth of structures and content at the undergraduate level. I specialize in lens-based and digital imaging, in both pre and post-production—video, photography, interactive media, digital ephemera, —but have also taught in other mediums such as printmaking and teach much of our theory courses. I have taught courses ranging from 20–240 students, from foundation to fourth year, including both studio and theory. Since 2014, I’ve taught all three large foundation-level digital classes that present a broad spectrum of new information to students about the role of practice in academic research. My skills also extend to teaching fourth year theory classes where students who handle diverse mediums come together in the required theory seminar class, and I offer a course where they can find a particular philosophical entry point for their end-of-degree work.
Since 2008, when I joined the department as a full-time lecturer, I’ve taught approximately 50% of the different course offerings of the undergraduate VISA curriculum and I have the ability to teach six others. The department relies on my diversity of skills and I pride myself on having been a flexible colleague in this regard since my initial entry in the department.
|
Courses Taught: September 2008 to April 2018 |
Number of Times Taught |
|
VISA 110: Foundation Studio: Digital Media |
23 |
|
VISA 183: Foundation Studio: Ideas as Practice |
6 |
|
VISA 210: Digital Arts |
6 |
|
VISA 240/41: Photography/Digital Photography |
4 |
|
VISA 250: Print Media |
2 |
|
VISA 310: Intermediate Digital Arts I |
9 |
|
VISA 311: Intermediate Digital Arts II |
3 |
|
VISA 375: Artists in Society” |
2 |
|
VISA 380: Studio Theory |
1 |
|
VISA 401: Advanced Open Studio |
5 |
|
VISA 410: Advanced Digital Arts I |
1 |
|
VISA 470: Advanced Special Studies |
2 |
|
VISA 480: Advanced Seminar I |
2 |
|
VISA 481: Advanced Seminar II |
2 |
|
VISA 490/491: Directed Studies |
5 |
The teaching methods that I use in each course are tailored to the learning outcomes identified at the curriculum level, but are also tailored to the type of class, classroom, student demographic and experience, medium, year level, and other characteristics of the course. However, I also strategically leave room for flexibility in my courses, so that I can customize my approach for the specific dynamic of any one class or students. Adaptability to meet the needs of the room is vital in VISA classrooms.
Two areas of focus in my teaching are digital media classes and large foundation-level classes:
Teaching Digital Media
Drawing on my expertise in lens-based still and moving images, my teaching in digital media covers both physical installations and interactive environments, which often incorporate computer programming to facilitate viewer interaction. To engage students and keep up their digital practices, I must keep up to date with my skills and technical developments. VISA 310 and 311 are prime examples of courses where the topics change yearly because the technology changes. Students in my classes have made artistic applications for tablets, websites that track your location and change dependent on your position to activate artwork, and, most recently, work that encompasses theories of the post-internet.
Teaching Large Foundation-Level Classes
Three of the six courses I teach most years is VISA 110, a foundation class with 100-220 students per section. VISA 110 is quite popular: it is the largest course in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, and amounts to about a quarter of the seats in VISA. Large interest in the class gives me the opportunity to introduce students from various disciplines to a complex, historically- and theoretically-informed, academically critical understanding of representation in and production of art. The size and type of class brings logistical challenges, in that there are various TAs, facilities, technical resources and skills to deploy.
I pride myself on finding ways to facilitate not only a large quantity of students, but also the quality of the learning they are receiving in this structure. Many of my students are first-generation academics—as I am—and so I consider an introduction to this very different way of thinking, which academia both enables and requires, an essential component to Foundation level teaching. Students often come to VISA 110 expecting a skill-based class, learning Adobe programs, but their expectations are soon overturned by the additional critical lens of evaluating their media-saturated culture while also utilizing the programs. They further learn how to make new images informed by this critical outlook—images that disrupt, deconstruct, and work to find new meaning, instead of perpetuating pre-existing myths. Teaching the complexities of images, students are challenged to switch from passively absorbing and uncritically contributing to image domains, and to transfer into a mode of active viewing, engagement and accountable production of new media; I am motivated and meet this challenge, working with students as they develop and activate a critical lens in their daily lives.
As a large first-year class, VISA 110 needs efficient and clear instruction; therefore, you will notice that the syllabus, class policies, schedules, rubrics, project directions and lesson plans are quite rigorous for the sake of clarity in assessment for both students and TAs.