Teaching
Class Room Teaching
Since 2015, I've taught nearly forty classes at Fordham University and Hunter College, CUNY, ranging from introductory philosophy and Ethics to advanced seminars on Ancient Greek Philosophy and Literature, Metaphysics, and the Philosophy of Technology (focusing on the theoretical foundations and implications of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Virtual Reality). I also incorporate a number of famous "thought experiments" that have inspired countless works of science fiction (like John Locke's theory of Personal Identity inspiring Freaky Friday, and Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence inspiring Groundhog Day) into most of my classes.
I love classroom teaching, but find it difficult to work the commute and typical class hours into my research and family life. So here we are!
Online Teaching
I was teaching two classes at Fordham University in 2020 when the president sent the whole school an emergency notice that classes were canceled for the next 48-hours to give instructors time to prepare to transition to online teaching for the rest of the semester. Like all educators who were teaching at the time, I scrambled, and my online teaching skills were formed, tried, and purified by the fires of trial and error.
I've since taught approximately 10 classes online, taken pedagogical courses for online teaching, and experimented with various instructional methods and tools.
I honestly believe the same level of education is available for those who want it in this medium, though it is slightly easier to get distracted and fall behind than in-person.
Teaching Awards and Evaluations
While teaching at Fordham, I won a Graduate Student Teaching Prize in 2019 and was nominated for the Critical Thinker Award by the undergraduate student government in 2020, which I won. For the 2021-2022 Academic Year, I won a Senior Teaching Fellowship, which provided an extra year of funding and approximately $30,000, with a teaching reduction to only two classes that year.
My anonymous evaluations were frequently among the highest in the department, and usually within 10% or less of the maximum score (e.g., 6.6/7 or 8.8/9) for "overall teaching." A sample set of anonymous University-distributed evaluations can be found here.
My public RateMyProfessor.com score from Fordham shows a 4.7/5 from 43 different students reviewing, which can be found here.
Classroom Technologies
Whether teaching online or in-person, I incorporate YouTube clips from shows and films, and other media like music and art. I'm not adverse to using memes and popular culture to explain things.
Since 2020, I began incorporating video-conferencing into my teaching, and I've been discussing the philosophical, societal, productivity, and educational benefits of Virtual Reality since 2021. Initially studying its pedagogical value, I actually find VR helpful for Classics research on ancient texts, for the ability to create and easily manipulate multiple screens.
I began using ChatGPT daily the moment LLMs became popular in 2022. I usually "crack" ChatGPT live in class by getting it to make mistakes in my areas of expertise; I then discuss safe ways AI can be used to facilitate productivity the rest of the semester.
Innovative, Cutting-Edge Classes
All of my classes incorporate research from top journals and academic publishing houses from the past 25 years, along with the traditional pre-2000s scholarship most academics were trained on.
Thus, my ethics classes discuss Aristotle and Kant, as any would, and the Trolley Problem, as most do. But my they also discuss how current self-driving car developers are researching their own version of the trolley problem in application to autonomous vehicles!
Especially with my ancient Greek classes, I'm teaching things I'm actively researching and planning to publish on, meaning I'm reading dozens of things in the recent literature while teaching the class and sharing those findings with you.
Every class except Intro and Ethics is unique; Plato classes in different semesters cover different material.
Extensive Tutoring and Editing for All Levels of Writing
While the $99 classes do not come with writing feedback, I'm happy to tutor students with all levels of writing and give high-level feedback for professionals struggling with publishing their work as a Writing Tutor or Publishing Consultant.
I've given feedback on thousands of college essays as a professor, and worked in Fordham's Writing Center as a Writing Center tutor for two years before I began teaching. I've also peer reviewed for academic journals and helped shape some of the articles currently advancing the fields of Philosophy, Classics, and Theology with my suggestions. For my own published work, see my research page.
I also offer Publication, Peer Review, and Journal workshops for Humanities Students and their Institutions, as well as producers and publishers.