Award Winning Teaching

I find teaching to be inspiring and uplifting, and I am committed to helping students grow as critical thinkers and as people. Methodologically rooted in the discipline of history, I advocate for the power of interdisciplinary perspectives in not only my teaching, but in undergraduate education as a whole.

Currently I am the Undergraduate Coordinator for the department of History and the Director of the Medical Humanities minor.

My passion and commitment for teaching has been rewarded by my students, my colleagues, and my peers.

Teaching Awards

Board of Trustees Teaching Excellence Award, UNCW, AY2023-2024

Distinguished Professor of Teaching Award, UNCW, AY2023–AY2026

Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award, UNCW, AY2021-2022

Discere Aude Award for Outstanding Student Mentoring, UNCW, 2019-2020

Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize, History of Science Society, as part of the Embryo Project Team, Fall 2018

Chancellor Dr. Aswani Volety (left), myself, and Provost Jamie Winebrake (right) at the 2023 Fall faculty meeting where I received the Board of Trustees Teaching Excellence Award and the Distinguished Professor of Teaching Award.

In the Classroom

At UNCW, I regularly teach undergraduate and graduate courses related to the history of science, technology, and medicine.

  • A survey of the history of science from early human civilizations through the Scientific Revolution. Emphasis on many non-western roots including Near East, East, and Islamic science and philosophy.

  • A survey of the history of science from the Scientific Revolution till our contemporary period. Emphasis on themes of race, gender, and professionalization.

  • An introduction to the varied disciplinary approaches to medical and health humanities.

  • A course designed to expose students to the long-standing issues surrounding biotechnologies, broadly construed. Topics include, eugenics, agricultural sciences, the biological revolution, reproductive technologies, recombinant DNA, the Human Genome Project, cloning, stem cells, and related contemporary topics.

  • An undergraduate methods course focused on helping students learn how to conduct historical research, ask historical questions, analyze primary sources, compose theses, and structure essays.

  • A survey of some of the major scientific and technological themes that have shaped the twentieth century since the Industrial Revolution. Topics include rise of factories, scientific management, eugenics, science and war, gender and technology, race and science, technological determinism, science and the state, computing and biotechnology.

  • Senior seminar focused on the history of evolutionary thought with heavy emphasis on research and writing skills.