I teach communication as I've taught people musical instruments: put the instrument in hand, stimulate play, discuss what's noticed. Listening guides the process.
Jazz pedagogy: improvisation is a method for finding one's voice through experimentation within historical legacies--a practice jazz musicians call "soloing together".
Jazz epistemology: knowledge is alive, in motion, reconfigurable. I teach content with the skills for adapting it situationally.
In technological terms (as music is always technological), students learn to jailbreak any subject matter, accessing the sourcecode of culture, thought, and expression.
Attentional training, adaptively: "The development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies" (Simone Weil). The humanities contain "arts of attention in the age of computational mediarchy" (Citton, Lanham, Foster Wallace)
[full essay available upon request]
Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching, American University in Dubai, Spring 2017
Provost’s Award for Professional Engagement and Community Outreach, American University in Dubai, Spring 2017
Appointed TA Mentor, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh, 2011-2012
Elizabeth Baranger Excellence in Teaching Award, U of Pittsburgh, 2010
Elizabeth Baranger Excellence in Teaching Award Nomination. U of Pittsburgh, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, (2012 ineligible as faculty status), 2013, 2014
Western Pennsylvania Rising Star, Baker Leadership, 2010
Jeremy D. Friedman Memorial Award for outstanding leadership, superior scholarship, and contributions to undergraduate life on campus, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
31 different courses at 9 institutions
The Dialogue Laboratory: Experimentation in Group Communication
The Dialogue Laboratory 2: Advanced Experimentation in Group Communication [as Independent Study for 5-8 students]
Academic Writing: Attending to Attention – The Secret Method of the Liberal Arts [first-year writing, theme-based]
Jazz Studies & the Training of Attention. 5-hour latenight workshop
Writing as Inquiry [first-year writing, theme-based]
Perspectives on the Humanities: Attending to Attention – The Secret Method of the Liberal Arts [second-year writing, theme-based]
Faculty & Curriculum Advisor of English Language, Digital Skills Training Program
Rhetorical Theory for the Literature and Linguistics Disciplines (Graduate)
Theories and Practices of Attention (Graduate/Undergraduate)
Writing in the Disciplines (Graduate)
Advanced Academic Writing for English Majors [WID course]
Academic Research Writing [second-year writing, research-based]
Critical Reading and Writing [first-year writing, textual response-based]
MA Thesis committee member in English Literature
In the Direction of Thick Dust: Navigating Humanism and Posthumanism in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Death of the Subject in Postmodern Media
Flight and Fancy: Astral Travel in Cavendish and Milton
MA Thesis committee member in English Language/Linguistics
Racist Discourse in Lebanon: Kafala System, Laws, and Facebook's Lebanese Madam Facebook Group
Perceptions of Faculty in the Communication Skills Program at the American University of Beirut of Online Learning during Covid-19
Public Speaking for English Second Language
Public Speaking for English Second Language: 6 Week Intensive
Influence: The Art & Practice
Leading Your Life, Lead TA of 11 TAs (remote)
Designing Your Life, TA for Intersession Course
Media and Consumer Culture
Television and Society: Issues of the Public Sphere and Private Life
Television and Society: Modes of Criticism
Public Speaking: Monolog as Dialog
Public Speaking: Lies, Distortion, and Bullshit
Argument: Theory and Workshop
Rhetorical Process (Intro to Rhetoric): Textual Analysis and Performativity
Rhetorical Process (Intro to Rhetoric): Theory and Public Performance, TA for 4 course sections
Rhetorical Process (Intro to Rhetoric): Rhetorical Logic and Argument, TA for 4 course sections
Communication Process (Intro to Communication Theory): Communication as Culture, TA for 8 course sections
Special Topics in Communication: Theories of Attention in Rhetoric and Media
Discussion: Group Communication Laboratory
Interpersonal Communication: Praxis
Mass Communication Process (Intro to Media Studies): How the Internet Works and Why It Matters
Mass Communication Process (Intro to Media Studies): Media Effects and Public Culture
Mass Communication Process (Intro to Media Studies): History of Media Technology, Law, and Institutions, TA for 4 course sections
Mass Communication Process (Intro to Media Studies): Media Culture, TA for 4 course sections
Advised 3 independent studies for undergraduate internships with WTAE Television, Maniac Magazine, and Pittsburgh Sheriff's Department
Grammar and Stylistics: Structures of Style, undergraduate teaching assistant
Rhetoric and Writing: Criticism of Written Argument, undergraduate teaching assistant