Together with my students, I work to create a classroom culture where we: 1) embrace knowledge-building as a collective endeavor (go team science!); 2) acknowledge and honor each other's humanity (we all make mistakes!); and 3) marvel at how profoundly difficult but important (and interesting!) it is to study, model, and analyze the social world we inhabit. I am a self-described data nerd, so I take great pleasure in telling sociological stories through quantitative and qualitative data. Also, given my background in area studies, I tend to prioritize placing the American social experience into global context.

One student described my class as “a shining example of what higher education should entail,” and it made me cry big, fat tears of gratitude.