Teaching Interests

PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY

I am prepared to teach introductory or advanced level courses focused on women, gender, and sexuality. Students in this class would critically examine how gender and sexuality are created and maintained through social and cultural practices, and how these issues arise in our lived experiences.  We would review empirical findings about gender beliefs and stereotypes, the relationship of gender and sexuality to research areas in psychology (e.g., personality, intergroup relations, well-being and health), and important issues that arise within the field (e.g., body image, sexual violence, and sexual orientation). My aim is for students to consider a variety of institutional forces that shape gender and sexuality.

PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

I have a strong interest in teaching a course focused on social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health. My teaching of Social Determinants of Health would enrich students’ understanding of how environments (e.g., schools, neighborhoods, communities) affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Additionally, we would examine public policies that impact health-threatening behaviors and generate solutions to foster social change. My primary goal is to demonstrate how social experiences (e.g., messages about body image, societal expectations for relationships, access to reproductive health services) relate to the conditions in which people are born, live, and work.

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS

I would welcome opportunities to teach a course focused on critical approaches to psychological methods. Students in this class would examine how experimental paradigms are excellent at observing cause and effect, but less attuned to meanings, expectations, and contradictions in our lives that are not easily observed or measured. We would critically engage with the practice of psychological research and review methodological interventions to enhance the field. My primary goal is for students to pay greater attention to the many layers of human experience – moving beyond psychological mechanisms and laboratory environments – to our historical, social, and political environments.