My teaching philosophy is to create student-centered classrooms where students understand that they have a crucial role to play in the success of the teaching and learning dynamic. Culture and society are complex, powerful products of history and human action. Fostering a greater understanding of the forces that influence culture and society including attention to those factors that create, reproduce, or alleviate social inequalities is an ethic that guides my teaching. I strive to provide students with analytical and methodological tools for understanding how the world works as well as recognition of their roles within it.