Teaching Awards
James Y. Joyner Award for Teaching Excellence, UNC Greensboro, 2023
Awarded to approximately 0.38% of tenure-track faculty.
Selection based on peer observations, quantitative student evaluations, and student testimonials.
Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award, UNC Greensboro, 2022
Awarded to one out of approximately 3,000 faculty and staff.
Selection for leadership in creating a positive transition to college and a successful learning environment for first-year students. I received the award primarily for the How to Do Well in College curriculum that I developed. (Although this long-standing award is open to both faculty and staff, it had always been awarded to staff. I was the first faculty member to ever receive the award.)
Humanities Teaching Fellow, UC Berkeley, 2017
Awarded to approximately 0.1% of graduate student instructors.
Selection based on student evaluations, in-person interview, faculty nomination, and Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay.
(The fellowship involves leading a workshop for first-time teaching assistants. Here is my workshop lesson plan. For the good stuff, skip to page 7.)
Teaching Effectiveness Award, UC Berkeley, 2017
Awarded to approximately 0.5% of graduate student instructors.
Selection based on classroom observation, faculty nomination, student evaluations, and short essay about teaching.
(Here is my Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, in which I describe a formative assessment that I use in introductory courses.)
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, UC Berkeley, 2015
Awarded to approximately 9% of graduate student instructors.
Selection by philosophy faculty based on student evaluations and classroom observation.
Teaching Evaluations
If you would like to see all the teaching evaluations—complete, unabridged, and unedited—for every course I have ever taught, you can find them here.
If you are a student who would like to write better philosophy papers, watch this:
Courses Taught
Good & Evil (UNC Greensboro, many semesters) syllabus
Minds & Brains (UNC Greensboro, many semesters) syllabus
Introduction to Philosophy (UNC Greensboro, many semesters) syllabus; video lectures
Introduction to Ethics (UNC Greensboro, many semesters) syllabus; video lectures
Philosophy of Law (UNC Greensboro, many semesters) syllabus; video lectures
Individual Morality and Social Justice (UC Berkeley, Summer 2017) course materials
Introduction to Philosophy: Mind-Body Problem (San Quentin State Prison, Fall 2016) course materials
Introduction to Philosophy: Metaphysics (San Quentin State Prison, Summer 2015)
Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology (San Quentin State Prison, Spring 2014)
Introduction to Philosophy: Early Modern (San Quentin State Prison, Spring 2013)
Individual Morality and Social Justice (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Niko Kolodny, Spring 2017)
Hume (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Barry Stroud, Fall 2015)
Philosophy of Society (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for John Searle, Spring 2015)
Descartes (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Tim Crockett, Fall 2014) explanatory footnotes on the Meditations
Philosophy of Language (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for John Searle, Spring 2014)
Philosophical Methods (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Daniel Warren, Fall 2013)
Introduction to Logic (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Justin Bledin, Summer 2013)
Modern Philosophy (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Hannah Ginsborg, Spring 2013)
Nature of Mind (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for John Campbell, Fall 2012)
Metaphysics (UC Berkeley, as Graduate Student Instructor for Dan Gibberman, Summer 2012)
Introduction to Moral and Political Philosophy (Williams College, as Teaching Assistant for Bojana Mladenovic, Spring 2009)
COVID Correspondence Course
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, when students at San Quentin State Prison were locked down and unable to attend in-person college classes, I built and taught a one-credit correspondence course on Landmark U.S. Court Cases.