Opportunities to expand their intellectual understanding through exposure to rigorous and demanding theoretical work.

Opportunities to enter the emotional and cultural experiences of persons different from themselves through study of literature, poetry, and films.

Opportunities for autobiographical inquiry into their own emotional and cultural experiences.In all of my classes students encounter the following, which are illustrated in the syllabi for my courses: I believe that these values are evident both in my current course syllabi and in the pedagogical experiences students have in my classes. My goal is to enable students to go beyond these boundaries to envisage a wider range of possibilities so that they become informed proactive, caring, concerned citizens of our world. I believe that teaching should be anchored in students’ lives and experiences, but not bounded by the contexts of their lives. In addition, it has allowed me to become more courageous in dealing with complex, anxiety provoking topics, of which the current war and the recent WTC disaster are obvious examples. My postdoctoral training in psychoanalysis, completed in 2003, has greatly enhanced my teaching capabilities and has allowed me to understand group dynamics and the workings of anxiety in the classroom. All of my classes, irrespective of size or level, are taught seminar style, and involve students in rigorous intellectual work, in reflective writing, in group work, and quite frequently in projects that demand practical applications or research extensions of the ideas under study.

In my teaching I strive to be caring, supportive, and student-centered, while at the same time providing intellectually challenging and rigorous courses for my students.

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