My approach to teaching anchors an ethical responsibility towards others in both fieldwork and homework. To me, anthropology is to wonder with others “what to make out of life” (following filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch), rather than a search for exotica. I find fulfillment every time a student opens up to a newly found banality in the strange, and to the strange within the banality. My concern lies with students both likely and unlikely to become humanities’ academics or cultural practitioners. My goal is therefore to offer a teaching approach rooted within and outside of classroom activities and publics. Taking anthropology as a method to be in the world and approach life critically, at all times, I work against a recurrent perception of the discipline as a mere consumption of “diversity”. Rather than a study of cultures and societies, which tends to reassert the fetishization of difference, I take anthropology to be a sustained practice of resonance with significant others.
Upcoming Teaching
Currently Teaching
*Currently very not teaching but researching, writing, summering… Come back in the Fall!
Previous Teaching
The American University in Cairo, Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology, Spring 2022
This course introduces students to cultural anthropology along with its potentials to reveal the familiar in the strange and the strange in the familiar. Some of the questions that will guide our conversations include: Can ethnography help us understand how we live with each other? How do culture, nation, gender, religion, class, race, and kinship shape our being in the world? What are the ethics of studying others and writing about them? As we read ethnographic studies and discuss the anthropological key concepts they engage with, we will consider how the discipline can construct, revise or unsettle social and cultural categories. You will be able to link theory and practice by building your own Cairo ethnographic study, which you will be sharing with your interlocutors and a broad audience through a public website. Open to all students curious about the world across all levels of ethnographic know-how.
Intro to Cultural Anthro
Sounding The World: Possibilities for Audio-Ethnography
Reel Others: Hollywood Screening Good, Bad & Just Muslims
Introduction To Digital Ethnography: Virtual Fieldwork, Real Homework
Anthropology & Film: Toward An Ethnography Of Creation
The American University in Cairo, Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology, Spring 2022
This course introduces students to the theorization and practice of an anthropology embedded in a careful listening referred to as audio or sonic ethnography. We will notably wonder: How does anthropology work if we remove the “observation” at its core? How have anthropologists been documenting soundscapes to decenter the omni-reliance on the visual to describe the world? What kind of estrangement can be found in the familiar, and what kind of familiarity can be found in the strange when we open our ears? Through a fine-tuning of our senses, we will attempt to bring ourselves toward more intentionality, more attention to self and others, and a more attuned presence in the daily. You will be able to link theory and practice by building your own Cairo ethnographic soundscape, which you will be sharing with your interlocutors and a broad audience through a digital platform and a worldwide conference. Open to all students driven by curiosity across all levels of ethnographic and technical know-how.
The American University in Cairo, Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
How can media representations engender Islamophobia? Could the depiction of "Arabs" be a way to reassure a certain togetherness in face of strangeness? How do the descriptions of "being Muslim", reflect (on) social relations with and without actual Muslims? Can we change the way we view “others”—and therefore ourselves—starting with how we picture them? Putting theories of representation into practice, this class considers the ideas and methods of visual anthropology and film studies to conduct both written and visual assignments. Thinking cinematically and anthropologically, students will craft essays with words (E.g: analysis of the trope of the White Cheikh and the series Homeland), and images (a final photo essay on films’ potentials to turn clichés around)
The American University in Cairo, Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology, Fall 2021
This course introduces students to digital anthropology and its potential to rethink how we inhabit virtual worlds. We will wonder: if ethnography is the study of how people live, what happens when it all goes online? What can thorough documentation of online worlds and cultures tell us about what we consider “real”? How are human relations maintained and altered by screens and data collections? As we read ethnographic studies of virtual worlds, we will consider how digital anthropology can construct, revise or unsettle oppositions such as real/virtual, face-to-face/disconnected, and the exotica of anthropological fieldwork. You will be able to link theory and practice in your own digital ethnographic study, which you will share with your interlocutors and a broad audience through a public website. This course welcomes all students curious about the world across all levels of ethnographic and digital experience.
For an overview of students’ projects: click here
The American University in Cairo, Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology, Fall 2021
This course introduces students to the anthropology of creation with a particular interest in filmmaking. What would the encounter between anthropology and film look like if we were to look at filmmaking from an anthropological point of view and at anthropology from the creator’s perspective? As we watch documentaries and read ethnographic studies of filmmaking, we will consider how the anthropology of creation could help us understand how movies (or TV commercials, or streaming series, or YouTube channels…) are thought, made, and lived. Rather than focusing on the outcome (the film itself), we will be paying attention to the process and the people involved. You will be able to link theory and practice in your own ethnographic study, which you will share with your interlocutors and a broad audience through a public website. This course welcomes all movie buffs and anthropology nerds across all levels of ethnographic and filmmaking experience.
For an overview of students’ projects: click here
Documentary Production: For The Ethnographically & Experimentally Inclined
Introduction To Digital Ethnography: Virtual Fieldwork, Real Homework
Smart Films for a Smart World: On The Go
Ethnographic Documentary
Mobile Media & Creative Ethnography
Hamilton College, Asian Studies/Anthropology/Cinema & Media Studies, Spring 2020
Introduction to audio-visual digital documentary production. Students work on individual short documentaries based on an Asian community in Utica using filmmakers from Asia and beyond as inspiration. Readings, screenings, and discussions bring together experimental cinema and ethnographic theory and methods. Our ultimate goal is to consider how images can push the limits of the distinction between “fact and fiction” by fusing the real and the surreal.
For a sample student project: click here
Hamilton College, Asian Studies/Anthropology/Cinema & Media Studies, Spring 2020
Introduction to the theory and methods of digital ethnography. Students develop projects taking the digital as both object and outcome. Students choose an Asian virtual community for study and present final projects on a digital platform. The course interrogates the anthropological separation of “fieldwork” and “homework” in the digital era and raises questions such as: Are social relations erased, transformed, or newly created when the web becomes our world? Are we putting distance between ourselves and others or getting a little too close? Are we now, also, Others among Others?
For an overview of students projects: click here
Hamilton College, Asian Studies/Art, Fall 2019
Can your smartphone become a partner to picture your world differently? What do technologies of seeing in cinema and anthropology have in common? How do alternative modes of filmmaking inform how we view others? The course uses readings in anthropology to think about viewing films, primarily by filmmakers from Asia and its neighbors. Students will design ethnographic projects and use smartphone apps to produce their own short documentaries. No previous expertise in Asian studies, award winning cinematics, or advanced geeky tech required. Ideas, energy, and an open mind are mandatory.
For an overview of students projects: click here
Developed at Hamilton College, Asian Studies/Art, Fall 2020
[Canceled due to pandemic related immigration issues]
Introduction to the theory and methods of mobile ethnography. Students develop individual projects using smartphones to document a local community of their choosing. The ethnographic outcome uses the digital methods such as short creative writing, photographic postcards, and video snippets. Successful projects will demonstrate a commitment to collaboration, creativity, and mobility. No previous expertise in Asian studies, award-winning aesthetics, or advanced geeky tech required. Pre-requisites: ideas, energy, and an open mind.
First Year Writing Seminars
Reel Others: Screening Good, Bad & Just Muslims in Cinema
No Science in The Wild: The Writing of Ethnography
2018 (Fall) | Cornell University, Knight Institute / Anthropology Department
Awarded a First-Year Writing Teaching Fellowship
2017 (Spring) | Cornell University, Knight Institute / Anthropology Department
Awarded a First-Year Writing Teaching Fellowship
Teaching Assistantships
2019 (Spring) | Documentary Production | TA (co-instructor) | Department of Anthropology, Cornell University
2016 (Fall) | The Comparison of Cultures | TA | Department of Anthropology, Cornell University
2015 (Spring) | Cultural Diversity & Contemporary Issues | TA | Department of Anthropology, Cornell University
2014 (Fall) |The Comparison of Cultures| TA | Department of Anthropology, Cornell University
Large anthropology courses
Study abroad programs
Courses awarded
but deferred
2018 (Winter) | Chinese Empire and the Cambodian Experience | TA & Cambodia coordinator | Cornell in Cambodia & Tompkins Cortland Community College
2016 (Winter) | Chinese Empire and the Cambodian Experience | as above
Trouble in The Cage: Gender, Race and Class at The Fights | TA (sole instructor) | Recipient Fall 2017 Award from the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, Cornell University (declined in favor of the Charlotte Newcombe Doctoral Fellowship)
Thinging The World: An Anthropology with Objects | TA (sole instructor) | Selected for a First Year Writing Fellowship as a course Spring 2018, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University (declined in favor of the Charlotte Newcombe Doctoral Fellowship)
Women Writing Culture: Feminists & Anthropologists at Work | Lecturer | Seminar prepared upon an invitation from a women’s religious college in Qom, Iran | Postponed (schedule conflict).