Making Thinking Visible
Students come to philosophy already thinking philosophically. My job is to help them do it better. I give them tools and habits to think more clearly, critically, and precisely about fundamental questions, and I design learning environments where that thinking becomes visible and open to examination. My aim is to cultivate the intellectual virtues essential to lifelong learning, philosophical inquiry, and democratic citizenship.
Courses Taught
Moral and Philosophical Issues in Education
This course centers on the social, philosophical, and normative foundations of education, especially education in a liberal democracy. Drawing on both historical and contemporary sources, we examine fundamental questions such as: What are the aims of education? What makes the distribution of educational opportunities just? Who should have the authority to shape educational policy and practice? Students engage in regular deliberation around normative case studies, encouraging them to critically examine and revise their philosophical views. The course emphasizes habits of open-minded inquiry and the cultivation of intellectual virtues needed for truth-seeking in contexts of disagreement.
Intergenerational Philosophy
Intergenerational Philosophy is a community-engaged course I created at UNC. I launched it in spring 2021 as a virtual pilot during the pandemic, and it has since grown into a regular in-person course with community partners across the Triangle. Each semester, undergraduates from across the university meet with older adults to read, question, and argue about philosophy together as equals. Our conversations range widely but return again and again to ethical reasoning and real-world dilemmas, and students learn to explain hard ideas to people who bring decades of experience to the discussion. The course also raises larger questions about what education is for, why learning should continue across a lifetime, and what philosophy can contribute to civic life.
Ethics Research Seminar
UNC-Chapel Hill
Attention and the Good Life
UNC-Chapel Hill
Social Foundation of Education
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education
Cicero’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Directed Readings)
UNC-Chapel Hill
Public Philosophy and Civic Engagement
University of Pennsylvania
Ethics Bowl and Democratic Deliberation
UNC-Chapel Hill