COURSES TAUGHT AT THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (2018-2022)

At Penn State, I taught courses in both the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.


For a detailed teaching history, please see my CV.

ETHICS

ETHICAL LIFE (INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS)
(PHILOSOPHY)

This course offers students an overview of ethical issues, moral reasoning, and questions concerning the good and flourishing life for individuals and groups. It engages the work and critical interpretation of major figures in moral thinking, and enters into the full complexity of contemporary moral problems. Students will study and evaluate competing accounts of the right way to live, including their overall plausibility, their background assumptions, and their practical implementation.

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
(PHILOSOPHY)

Leaders, in whatever context, make difficult decisions, distribute scarce resources, direct and influence the conduct of others, and represent the goals of the enterprise they lead. Thus they ought to exemplify prudence, fairness, integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, sincerity, and morally upright behavior. This course investigates these concepts and the moral dilemmas that arise in developing or applying them. It also explores, philosophically as well as practically, the ways leaders might identify ethical challenges, analyze them, imagine possible solutions, and be motivated to do the right thing. Students may read a variety of literature, from classic plays and novels, to prominent philosophical texts, to recent studies of ethics and leadership.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
(PHILOSOPHY)

What is the relationship between philosophy, politics, and society? What is the difference between having the “right” to do something and doing the “right” thing? What is the law, and is it ever O.K. to break it? What is the relevance of personal or group identity in politics? This course will examine a survey of social and political philosophical thought relevant to the context of the United States in exploring such questions. We will cover topics such as freedom, property, law, immigration, and citizenship in historical and contemporary U.S. society and politics. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which particular themes recur and transform across the selection of texts, which range from canonical philosophical works to historical documents to narrative essays.

RACE, RACISM, & DIVERSITY (PHILOSOPHY OF RACE)
(PHILOSOPHY)

This course offers a critical examination of the ways we today often think about race and racism, and takes up the philosophical issues raised by the concept of race in intersection with class, gender, and related concepts. We will cover topics from theoretical perspectives from a range of contexts and disciplines, examining both historical and contemporary issues. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which particular themes recur and transform across the selection of texts, which range from canonical philosophical pieces to extra-philosophical works of modern scholarship and debate.

GENDER MATTERS (PHILOSOPHY OF GENDER)
(PHILOSOPHY; WOMEN'S, GENDER, & SEXUALITY STUDIES)

What is the relationship between sex and gender? How many sexes are there? Is gender a product of nature, nurture, or both? This course examines various philosophical approaches to issues such the construction of gender, sex, and sexuality, the nature of gender injustice, feminist problems and perspectives, and the intersectionality of oppressions in exploring such questions. We will cover topics from theoretical perspectives from a range of contexts and disciplines, examining both historical and contemporary issues. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which particular themes recur and transform across the selection of texts, which range from canonical philosophical pieces to extra-philosophical works of modern scholarship and debate.

PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE AND SEX
(PHILOSOPHY)

This course examines the dominant philosophical and theological theories of love and sexuality in the Western world; historical and recent critiques of those theories; and the relevance of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation to all such thinking about love and sex. Related ethical issues include monogamy, same-sex marriage, cultural differences, pornography, and consent, especially in contemporary US context.

GENDER STUDIES

INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN'S, GENDER, & SEXUALITY STUDIES
(WOMEN'S, GENDER, & SEXUALITY STUDIES)

This class focuses on the shared and unshared experiences of women and other marginalized peoples, issues of gender roles and stereotyping, questions related to sex/gender systems, and the different disciplinary approaches to the study of women and gender. The course asks how the behavior, activities, accomplishments, roles, sexuality and status of women and marginalized peoples have been shaped by biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, historical and political determinants, as well as by their experiences based on racial, class, and sexual identities. Topics include the history of liberation movements of women and sexual minorities, women's experiences in home, work and educational settings, gender roles and stereotyping as influenced by media, culture, education, and other social institutions, health and body image issues, and multiple forms of oppression. The course will focus on feminist issues in both the US and on a global scale and is both interdisciplinary and broadly inclusive, addressing at all times the relationship between gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

GENDER MATTERS (PHILOSOPHY OF GENDER)
(PHILOSOPHY; WOMEN'S, GENDER, & SEXUALITY STUDIES)

What is the relationship between sex and gender? How many sexes are there? Is gender a product of nature, nurture, or both? This course examines various philosophical approaches to issues such the construction of gender, sex, and sexuality, the nature of gender injustice, feminist problems and perspectives, and the intersectionality of oppressions in exploring such questions. We will cover topics from theoretical perspectives from a range of contexts and disciplines, examining both historical and contemporary issues. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which particular themes recur and transform across the selection of texts, which range from canonical philosophical pieces to extra-philosophical works of modern scholarship and debate.

REPRESENTING WOMEN AND GENDER IN ART, LITERATURE, AND POPULAR CULTURE
(WOMEN'S, GENDER, & SEXUALITY STUDIES)

This course offers an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies with an emphasis on the experiences, achievements, and status of women in the arts and humanities in both the U.S. and global contexts. We will cover theoretical perspectives from a range of contexts and disciplines, as well as examples of contemporary creative practices through the visual arts, literature, and popular culture. We will consider in depth the ways in which artists have navigated heteronormative industries of art and media — specifically, how they have sought and continue to seek new languages and forms to reassess and re-imagine notions of sex and sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity that underlie many forms of social injustice.