My teaching emerges from and informs my research. I have had opportunities to teach a number of courses in my areas of specialty, including Ethical Issues in Neural Engineering (ENE), Ethical Reasoning (ER), and Philosophy of Law (PL). In each course, my pedagogy is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural. I encourage students to approach sources external to the discipline of philosophy from a philosophical lens. In my ENE course, students learn to analyze implicit value claims in scientific literature through a "case study" assignment. Likewise, my PL course asks students to identify philosophical assumptions about the law in American court decisions. I also incorporate viewpoints from outside North America and the Western world, including Chinese neuroethics in my ENE course, Hindu ethics in my ER course, and Japanese law in my PL course.
Through these types of assignments and readings, students in my classes: (1) learn to appreciate and analyze the arguments and perspectives of individuals in different professional roles and cultures, and (2) become comfortable discussing topics about which they may have deeply-held intuitions in ways that encourage and address the expression of alternative viewpoints. My goal is for students to leave my classes with a nuanced understanding of philosophical and ethical issues, including an appreciation of diverse perspectives, an ability to distinguish successful from unsuccessful arguments, and the tools to express their ideas in well-formed, logical arguments. The best mark of my success as an instructor is a successful student - in two years, I have had two students win three major ethics essay awards with their final papers from my classes. I look for opportunities for my students and I encourage them to submit their work to contests and journals as it develops throughout the class.
I have also led ethics roundtables for scientists and students at universities, community colleges, and high schools and have lectured for the UW Upward Bound program, the Bainbridge Public Library, and the National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies. In summer 2016, I mentored a local middle school teacher as she conducted research and created a curriculum for teaching neuroethics in her school. I am eager to engage new audiences with ethics - it encourages me to reshape my teaching methods and challenges me to respond to new and diverse questions.
Through these types of assignments and readings, students in my classes: (1) learn to appreciate and analyze the arguments and perspectives of individuals in different professional roles and cultures, and (2) become comfortable discussing topics about which they may have deeply-held intuitions in ways that encourage and address the expression of alternative viewpoints. My goal is for students to leave my classes with a nuanced understanding of philosophical and ethical issues, including an appreciation of diverse perspectives, an ability to distinguish successful from unsuccessful arguments, and the tools to express their ideas in well-formed, logical arguments. The best mark of my success as an instructor is a successful student - in two years, I have had two students win three major ethics essay awards with their final papers from my classes. I look for opportunities for my students and I encourage them to submit their work to contests and journals as it develops throughout the class.
I have also led ethics roundtables for scientists and students at universities, community colleges, and high schools and have lectured for the UW Upward Bound program, the Bainbridge Public Library, and the National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies. In summer 2016, I mentored a local middle school teacher as she conducted research and created a curriculum for teaching neuroethics in her school. I am eager to engage new audiences with ethics - it encourages me to reshape my teaching methods and challenges me to respond to new and diverse questions.
