I. Teaching Biography  The following teaching biography provides a chronological overview of the courses I have taught, beginning with the course I am currently teaching and ending with the first course I taught. The Frankfurt School in New York City Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: May 2012 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate seminar Format: Seminar Enrollment: 15 Position: Assistant Professor Description: This course has two parts: the first part consists of an in-depth introduction to the works of the Frankfurt School through the reading the works of Georg Lukacs, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas, among others. During the second part of the course, we will follow the footsteps of the Frankfurt School thinkers in New York City, both at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research. Ideally, students will take away from this course not only a deep understanding of the philosophical and theoretical roots of critical theory, but also a more refined awareness of the Frankfurt School’s impact on American intellectual life in general, and New York City’s in particular. Contemporary Feminist Political Theory Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: Spring 2011 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate seminar Format: Seminar Enrollment: 12 Position: Assistant Professor Description: In this seminar we engage with central themes and approaches of contemporary feminist political theory. We examine the US and European feminist political theory traditions. We assess how feminist political theorists rethink key concepts at the center of contemporary debates in political theory—including power, justice, subjectivity, agency, freedom, resistance, democracy, and political transformation. This focus allows us to critically assess the commonalities (and differences) of the thinkers and the two theory traditions we discuss. After a general introduction to the topic, we start out with Iris Marion Young, Drucilla Cornell, and bell hooks (American feminist political theory), followed by Simone De Beauvoir, Luce Irigaray, and Adriana Cavarero (European feminist political thought). Marx’s Challenge to the Good Life in Modern Societies Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: Spring 2011 (3 sections), Fall 2010 (1 section), Spring 2010 (1 section) Course-level: Undergraduate course Format: Seminar Enrollment: average 12-15 students per section Position: Assistant Professor Description: This course is designed to ask several questions: What is the good life? How can we live the most meaningful life? How can we fulfill our highest potentials? For Karl Marx our ability to answer these questions has a direct bearing on our ability to understand ourselves as participants in a shared social world with others. People fulfill and realize their humanity through meaningful work or creative activity, which allows them to contribute to a wider community. In capitalist societies most people are denied such a work activity, which leads to dehumanization and alienation from the social world. Marx proposed a system of production, which is based on cooperation rather than acquisitiveness and self-interest to counter the negative consequences of capitalism. We will follow Marx’s search for the good life to get a deeper understanding of key concepts, such as ideology, alienation, exploitation, exchange- and use-value and class antagonisms. Contemporary European Political Philosophy Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: Fall 2010 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate seminar Format: Seminar Enrollment: 9 Position: Assistant Professor Description: In this seminar we engage with central themes and approaches of contemporary, 20th- and 21st- Century European/Continental political philosophy. We examine the German, French and Italian Continental philosophical traditions. We discuss how European philosophers think about the relationship between theory (or philosophy) and political practice. We also analyze the ways in which the respective thinkers conceptualize power and political transformation. This focus will allow us to critically assess the commonalities (and differences) of the thinkers and the three traditions discussed. We start out with Theodor W. Adorno and Hannah Arendt (German political philosophy), followed by Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva (French political thought), and we end with Adriana Caverero and Giorgio Agamben (Italian political philosophy). 5. The Philosophy of Middle-Eastern Politics Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: Spring 2010 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate course Format: Seminar Enrollment: 19 Position: Assistant Professor Description: This course introduces students to the philosophy of contemporary politics in the Middle East by examining issues such as Western representations of the Middle-East, factors of early state-building and its legacies in modern states in the region, and gender politics. Its focus is on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which we study by engaging with contemporary political theorists who aim to understand Middle-Eastern politics from a philosophical point of view.    6. Power and Political Resistance Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: Fall 2009 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate course Format: Seminar Enrollment: 17 Position: Assistant Professor Description: In this seminar we engage with central themes and approaches of three contemporary political theories: critical theory, post-structuralism, and feminist political theory. This course has three goals. First, we engage with these theories to obtain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of power in modern societies. Second, we analyze the ways in which these theories might assist us to think about issues pertaining to political resistance. Third, we analyze the ways in which the respective thinkers conceptualize socio-political change. We begin with Marx and Marcuse (critical theory), followed by Foucault and Derrida (post-structuralism), and conclude with Iris Marion Young and Judith Butler (feminist political theory). 7. Western Political Theory Institution: Roanoke College Department: Public Affairs Date: Fall 2009 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate course Format: Lecture Enrollment: 15 Position: Assistant Professor Description: This course traces the development of Western political thought from the Ancient Greeks to contemporary political philosophy. The course has three central goals. The first is to gain a deeper understanding of key terms in political theory—such as democracy, justice, equality, freedom, political authority, and the good life—by reading classic texts. The second is to trace the historical evolution of these terms in Western political thought. And the third is to consider the historical context in which the discussed political philosophers produced their texts. Readings include the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, and Marx. 8. Alternative Political Theory Institution: Dartmouth College Department: Government Date: Spring 2009 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate course Format: Seminar Enrollment: 7 Position: Visiting Assistant Professor Description: See course description of “Power and Political Resistance,” taught at Roanoke College in the Fall 2009 semester. 9. Political Ideas Institution: Dartmouth College Department: Government Date: winter 2009 Course-level: Undergraduate course, introduction Format: Lecture Enrollment: 15 Position: Visiting Assistant Professor Description: See course description of “Western Political Theory,” taught at Roanoke College in the Fall 2009 semester. 10. Contemporary European Political Philosophy Institution: Dartmouth College Department: Government Date: Winter 2009 Course-level: Advanced undergraduate seminar, open to graduate students Format: Seminar Enrollment: 8 Position: Visiting Assistant Professor Description: See course description of “Contemporary European Political Philosophy,” taught at Roanoke College in the Fall 2009 semester. 11. Alternative Models of Political Theorizing Institution: The University of Chicago Department: Political Science Date: Spring 2007 Course-level: Graduate course; open to undergraduate students with prior knowledge Format: Seminar Enrollment: 18 Position: Visiting Assistant Professor Description: This course is designed to teach three alternative models of political theorizing: critical theory, post-structuralism and feminist political theory. We assess the strengths and weaknesses of these models in terms of their ability to address and redress injustice in modern societies by studying the works of two representatives of each: Marx and Adorno (critical theory), Foucault and Lacan (post-structuralism), Iris Marion Young and Judith Butler (feminist political theory). We critically discuss the commonalities and differences of both the discussed thinkers and the alternative models of political theorizing they represent. 12. Marginalization in the Sciences: Gender, Class and Race Institution: The University of Vienna, Austria Department: Social Studies of Science Date: Spring 2006 Course-level: Graduate course, open to undergraduate students with prior knowledge Format: 10 days intensive seminar Enrollment size: 12 Position: Visiting Lecturer Description: In this course, we critically examine the argument that gender, social class, and race-ethnicity lead to processes of marginalization in the sciences. We begin by articulating more clearly the meanings of these often used but rarely defined categories. Following this groundwork, we engage political theories, theories of science, and poststructuralist theories in order to grasp how marginalization works. As a final goal, we elaborate the ways we can resist marginalization and create sciences in which women, working-class people, and racial minorities can thrive. 13. Studies of Modern Society: 1798 to the Present Institution: The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: Spring 2003 Course-level: Undergraduate course Format: Seminar Enrollment size: 24 Position: Adjunct Professor Description: In this course I introduce students to major political thinkers, from the French Revolution to the present, who have contributed to shaping the Western imagination: Kant, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, De Toqueville, Le Bon, Freud, Weber, Arendt, De Beauvoir, Fanon, and Adorno. We critically assess the theoretical positions of these thinkers and place them in the historical, social and political contexts in which their thoughts emerged. 14. Texts and Contexts: Old Worlds and New Institution: The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Date: Fall 2002 Course level: Undergraduate course Enrollment size: 22 Format: Seminar Position: Adjunct Professor Description: This course introduces students to major thinkers, from the Renaissance to the French Revolution, with a focus on their political philosophies. Thinkers include De Pizan, More, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Descartes, Astell, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Wollstonecraft. The overall purpose of the course is to help students to develop both political and philosophical understanding through close reading of the assigned texts, class discussion, and careful writing. 15. The History of Political Thought Institution: Princeton University Department: Politics Date: Fall 2001 Course level: Undergraduate course Enrollment size: 22 Format: Discussion Position: Visiting Lecturer Description: This course introduces students to key concepts of the major thinkers in ancient and modern political thought: Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Tocqueville, Marx and Arendt. Rethinking Female Aggression Institution: The New School for General Studies, New York Department: Social Sciences, Bachelor’s Program Dates: Spring 2000, Fall 2000, Fall 2001 Course level: Advanced undergraduate course Format: Seminar Enrollment size: 15-25 Position: Adjunct professor Description: This course reviews research on women’s aggression (Bjoerkqvist/Francek/Lindfors), feminist psychoanalyses that engages with female aggression (Benjamin/Fast/Chodorow), and newer feminist scholarship on women’s aggression, rooted in postmodern and interactionist theory (Grossmann, Leeb). We also analyze representations of aggressive women in film and popular culture (including Hart). We answer the following questions: How do these works define and explain female aggression? What is the theoretical basis upon which they base their arguments? Do their arguments enhance or impede our understanding of women and aggression? 17. The Politics of Recognition Institution: The New School for General Studies, New York Department: Social Sciences, Bachelor’s Program Date: Summer 2001 Course level: Advanced level on-line course Enrollment size: 10 Format: On-line discussion Position: On-line instructor Description: This course introduces students to the contemporary ‘politics of recognition’ debate in contemporary political theory. 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