Teaching Philosophy

I prepare and distribute memos detailing my teaching philosophy to each of my classes. You can find one such teaching philosophy here.

​Courses Taught

United States Military Academy
  • DS489 and DS496: Thesis Sequence in Strategic Studies. We made curricular changes to the Defense and Strategic Studies Thesis sequence to disaggregate the methods class from the thesis proposal writing class. In the fall I work with cadets in the classroom to build out research questions and methodologies to prepare them to work with individual faculty advisors in the spring. 
  • DS495: Research Methods in Strategic Studies. All cadets in the Defense and Strategic Studies (DSS) major take this class in the fall to prepare them to do more self-guided research in the spring for either a thesis or group capstone project. This class introduces them to the fundamentals of research design and helps them get started on their year-long research projects.
  • SS307: International Relations. This is a core course requirement for all cadets and is typically taken in their third year. The department standardizes the content of the course across all instructors--a necessity, since 500+ cadets are enrolled each semester, but class size is capped at 18 (imagine their reaction when I tell them that when I took this class as an undergrad, I was in one lecture hall with more than 600 other students). From 2018 to 2020, I taught several sections per year to non-IR majors. I loved the opportunity to work with a broad sample of the corps, introducing them to a topic I'm passionate about and emphasizing the importance it will have to their future careers. 
  • SS457: Grand Strategy. As Director of the Rupert H. Johnson Grand Strategy Program, I taught two classes that are required as part of the Department of Social Sciences' minor in Grand Strategy. This is the introductory course, which takes cadets through a deep dive into the origins, definitions, and utility of the concept of grand strategy, followed by a broad sweep of examples of grand strategy in practice around the world, from ancient Greece to the modern day. The class also fulfills partial requirements of the International Affairs major. You can find my most recent syllabus here.
  • SS458: Topics in Grand Strategy. This is the second required course for the Grand Strategy minor. Each time it is taught offers the cadets an opportunity for a focused examination on a particular theme within the field of grand strategy. When I taught this class in Fall 2019, we focused on an analysis of the sources of power and the inputs of grand strategy. You can find the syllabus here.
  • XH397: Summer Field Study in Grand Strategy. The Grand Strategy Program also provides cadets an opportunity to travel abroad for three weeks to study topics relevant to grand strategy in regions where the course's subject matter actually happened (or is happening). Cadets are immersed in local cultures while reading about grand strategy, visiting sites of historical and political importance, and meeting with experts and policy practitioners. This class is primarily intended to meet the capstone requirement for cadets enrolled in the minor, though non-minors can enroll as well.
    • In summer 2019, this class examined The Rise and Fall of Great Powers in the 19th and 20th centuries while traveling through Belgium, France, and the England. You can find the syllabus and itinerary here.
    • In summer 2020, we held the class as a remote experience. The subject this time was American Grand Strategy in East Asia, co-taught with MAJ Tom Fox. You can find the syllabus here.

University of Pennsylvania
  • PSCI150: Introduction to International Relations. I taught this class three times while in grad school for the School of Liberal and Professional Studies, which caters to non-traditional students. The format was longer seminars (3 hours during the semester, 4 hours (!) during the 5-week long summer course). This was the first class I developed my own syllabus for. The long class periods and introductory material allowed for a lot of fun experimentation with different classroom activities/assignments, and was a great opportunity to get to know the students. 
  • As a Teaching Assistant, I also led weekly small group discussions for the following classes: PSCI131: American Foreign Policy, PSCI150: Introduction to International Relations, PSCI252: War, Strategy, and Politics, and PSCI255: Causes of War and Peace.
  • I also served as a grader for PSCI226: Ethnic Conflict.

La Salle University
  • In Fall 2017 I co-taught the first six weeks of POL240: Introduction in International Relations and POL272: The Rise and Fall of Dictators. While I did not create the syllabus for either class, I did develop and deliver lecture material. Though it was a whirlwind experience while finishing up my dissertation, I loved the opportunity to get to know a different student population, try my hand at a new class on a topic a little outside my comfort zone, and practice teaching in a different class format.