Teaching
Undergraduate Courses
The Seven Deadly Sins: Representations of Vice and Virtue in Christian Tradition
Duke, Fall 2022 (anticipated)
This course will trace the motif of the seven deadly sins in Western tradition, exploring two methods of understanding human psychology and behavior: the philosophical school of virtue ethics, which provides an account of how our actions and habits shape our characters and identities, and the artistic technique of allegory, which externalizes our inner life in vivid, sometimes shocking images, characters, and stories.
The Great Conversation: Foundations in Thinking, Reading, and Writing
Gordon College, Spring 2021 (two sections)
The Great Conversation is Gordon’s first-year writing course and first-year seminar, designed to introduce students to the liberal arts tradition from a Christian perspective and to build your skills as a reader, writer, and thinker. Course texts, discussion, and research project explore both the value of a Christian liberal arts approach for our modern world and the strategies Christians use to address tough questions in a changing society.
The Inklings: Canon, Criticism, and Genre Fiction
Harvard, Fall 2019
This junior tutorial, a small, writing-intensive course designed to teach junior English majors how to conduct research and prepare them to write a senior thesis, explores intertextuality through the writings of four friends—C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Dorothy Sayers. We read major works of medieval and early modern literature alongside twentieth-century genre fiction and literary scholarship, studying the relationship between canonical models and the later writers who respond to and reinvent them.
CCS Short Courses
CCS Short Courses are six-week-long co-curricular courses for Duke students.
The Human Condition: A Theological Perspective
This short course explores what it means to be human—both made in God’s image and fallen—through a selection of readings from scripture, theology, philosophy, poetry, and art, with discussions led by guest professors of literature, art history, and theology.
The Vocation of a Student
We often think about college as a preparation for the work God is calling us to do after graduation. But can the day-to-day academic work of drafting essays and cramming for tests be done to the glory of God? This short course explores the purpose of education, the role of religion within the university, and the spirituality of study, with guides including Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, Simone Weil, and Stanley Hauerwas.
TA/TF Experience
"Transforming Society: Revolution or Reform," Harvard, Spring 2020
"The Canterbury Tales," Harvard, Spring 2019
"Arrivals: British Literature 700-1700," Harvard, Fall 2018
"The Story of King Arthur," University of Minnesota, Spring 2016
"Historical Survey of British Literatures I," University of Minnesota, Fall 2015