Teaching

I have been an educator of university level students since 2005. Below you can read about my classroom philosophy and look at the courses that I’ve developed and had the pleasure of teaching.

Philosophy

I believe the classroom is a workshop for rethinking the world. My teaching philosophy consists in finding ways to create an environment and supply the tools that enable students to question fundamental categories of knowledge, such as primary differences of gender, ethnicity, or what can be considered culture. This emphasis on critically examining conceptual categories as they impact on the worlds we live in and move through shapes my pedagogical choices. Gaining awareness of the history, context, and usage of a concept is where my teaching and research both begin; this process is central to stimulating one’s intellectual curiosity in rethinking the world.

Using concepts to explore the world around us directs me to be not only aware of the diversity in the classroom, but also enables me to be flexible and mobile in terms of disciplinary orientation. It guides me to the makers, users, and propagators of concepts: to the social world of ideas, and to the people who live there. In this sense, my approach to cultural production and various modes of mediation (film, television, art, performance), through concepts involves an examination of how knowledge becomes socially embedded. In sum, I seek to teach people how concepts travel and manifest in diverse cultural practices so that they may become lifelong critical thinkers.

Teaching areas

• Gender & Sexuality in the Film and Literary Studies Department of Leiden University
• Cultural Studies in the Literature and Art Department of Maastricht University
• Art History in the Humanities Faculty of the Amsterdam University College
• Film Studies in the Media Studies Department of the University of Amsterdam

I also regularly supervise MA and BA thesis in these areas.