TEACHING
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy centers on critical thinking, lifelong learning, and student success in discussion environments.
SPST 3178: History of Sport in the United States
August 2025 - Present
University of Iowa
​History of Sport in the U.S. explores the historical development of contemporary sport in the United States and the contexts that shaped it (e.g. economic and political forces, professionalization, growth of media, social movements). The course engages with a critical consideration of the academic project that is sport history, and it encourages students to think carefully about the process of doing (researching) and making (writing) sport history. As such, this course emphasizes the understanding that there are multiple histories and uses sport to investigate why certain versions of history are mythologized, while others are lesser known. In doing so, it utilizes documentaries, film, news sources, archives, and academic books and articles concerning sport to explore how the histories we do (and don’t) tell shape our understandings of ourselves and our world.
SPST 3173: Cultures of Basketball
August 2025 - Present
University of Iowa
In a little more than a century since its invention, basketball has become a major global sport. In the United States, it enjoys prominence and visibility at every level of competition. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most successful sports leagues in the world and has a growing fanbase around the world. WNBA players have been important social actors, playing an influential role in social protests and the 2020 elections. Variations on the game, from streetball to 3x3 continue to redefine the culture of the sport. In this course, we will explore some of the cultural richness of basketball. We will examine how the game developed, the variety of ways it is organized today, and the cultural struggles to make meaning of it.
SPST 2079: Race and Ethnicity in Sport
August 2025 - Present
University of Iowa
This class examines race and ethnicity, and related barriers to equity, in sport. This is not a course where we simply hear about athletes of color such as Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, or Wilma Rudolph. Instead, this class is designed to foster an understanding of how race and racism function culturally, historically, and presently in sport and society. The goal is to come to a better understanding of how race and ethnicity shape, and are shaped by, experiences in sport, and be better prepared to engage in anti-racism efforts. In this course we utilize contemporary writing and interdisciplinary research to examine the stories we tell about race and ethnicity in America through the lens of sport.
JMC 3186: Athletes, Activism, and Social Media
August 2025 - Present
University of Iowa
Through the development of online/new media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter/X in recent years, athletes of all levels are increasingly proactive in their use of social media as a medium through which to send messages about and show solidarity with the people and issues they care most about. This course, focusing mostly on online racial justice activism by U.S. athletes, will therefore seek to understand what social activism can look like in the context of sport, to critically examine the role of social media in athlete activism, and to deepen understandings about this new generation of athlete activists characterized by social media usage/engagement.
AMST 201: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES
August 2023- August 2025
California State University, Fullerton
This course is an introduction to American cultural history and theory. From an examination of a few different thinkers, this course aims to look at history as something that can help us understand the present. This course examines four periods, which Americans widely regarded as some of the best years in our history, but also are categorized by large amounts of political dissent: the industrialization of the late 19th century, the mid-20th century, the 1980s, and the early 2000s.Through our journey, this course will develop your critical thinking and writing skills and cultivate your awareness of American values and institutions, past and present.
AMST 346: SPECTATOR SPORTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE
January 2022 - May 2025
California State University, Fullerton
This course examines the development of American sports from the 19th century to the present. Rather than requiring you to learn many facts about sports, it asks you to analyze the changing roles that sports have played in the cultural and social lives of Americans. Beyond the big three American sports of baseball, football, and basketball, it will deal with a wide range of other sports including boxing, soccer, Track & Field, and eSports.
KNES 480: Issues of Gender and Sexuality
Fall 2024
California State University, Fullerton
Sociocultural study of historical and contemporary gender norms and sexuality in sport, recreation, and leisure; emphasizing femininity, masculinity, and sexual orientation affect access, inclusion, and participation.
AMST 300: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE
August 2022 - May 2024
California State University, Fullerton
This course explores the historical development of U.S. popular culture, from the 19th century to the present. We will focus our attention on the production and reception of popular culture, studying how marketers and audiences have ascribed meanings to various leisure activities and mass amusements. Throughout the course, we will consider how the ideological content and public reception of popular culture can be shaped by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, and technology.
AMST 350: CALIFORNIA CULTURES
August 2022- December 2022
California State University Long Beach
This course examines the numerous ways people experience life in the Golden State, and the infinite number of images and impressions of California that exist in the American popular imagination. This course will trace the history and imagery of California from the late 19th century through the present day. Literature, film history, architecture, television, and the visual arts will provide our tools as we explore the creation of histories and images of California. Mythmaking, popular consciousness, representation, and identity formation will be key concepts explored in this course.
SPST 1074:INEQUALITY IN AMERICAN SPORT
August 2018 - December 2022
University of Iowa
This course offers students an introduction to current scholarship and debates surrounding issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in sports. Students will learn how to use a critical perspective to examine the meaning of sports within the U.S. In particular, the course focuses on the relationships and dynamics of inequalities in sports structured along such lines as class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, race, ethnicity, and religion. The class is offered in a lecture/discussion section format. Requirements include course readings, critical autobiographical reflections and research and research outline on key course concepts, and lecture and discussion section participation.