As an instructor, my priority is to make my courses accessible in every possible way. This requires (among other things) seeking measures to provide an inclusive learning environment; favoring coursepacks and affordable anthologies; and correctly assessing the progression of students, for instance by adjusting the assigned readings. I am also keen to experiment with new teaching methods and practices.
Here is more information on a course I taught:
PHIL360: 17th Century Philosophy (McGill University, fall 2016, 42 students)
- My syllabus (available here) has been included to the Diversity and Inclusiveness Syllabus Collection of the American Philosophical Association.
- My assignments and course evaluations are available upon request.
In general, I want students to discover and reflect on a diversity of philosophical ideas and theories. In order to meet that objective, I like to interrogate the way history of philosophy is generally taught and to reflect on ways to diversify syllabi. I therefore organized my course around a topic of interest for 17th century philosophers, self-knowledge, in order not only to expose students to the ideas of several well-known philosophers of the early modern era, but also to those of non-canonical figures. The topic of self-knowledge allowed us to investigate a number of important questions – among others: Descartes’ conception of the self and of what one can know; Spinoza’s theory of knowledge; Gournay, Suchon, Poulain de la Barre and Astell on the impact of prejudices on self-knowledge; what it means to know oneself according to Cavendish’s vitalist materialism; and finally, the implications of the debate between Locke and Leibniz on innate ideas for self-knowledge. Students were very responsive to the structure of the course and were particularly interested in reading and discussing lesser-known philosophers.
PHIL360: 17th Century Philosophy (McGill University, fall 2016, 42 students)
- My syllabus (available here) has been included to the Diversity and Inclusiveness Syllabus Collection of the American Philosophical Association.
- My assignments and course evaluations are available upon request.
In general, I want students to discover and reflect on a diversity of philosophical ideas and theories. In order to meet that objective, I like to interrogate the way history of philosophy is generally taught and to reflect on ways to diversify syllabi. I therefore organized my course around a topic of interest for 17th century philosophers, self-knowledge, in order not only to expose students to the ideas of several well-known philosophers of the early modern era, but also to those of non-canonical figures. The topic of self-knowledge allowed us to investigate a number of important questions – among others: Descartes’ conception of the self and of what one can know; Spinoza’s theory of knowledge; Gournay, Suchon, Poulain de la Barre and Astell on the impact of prejudices on self-knowledge; what it means to know oneself according to Cavendish’s vitalist materialism; and finally, the implications of the debate between Locke and Leibniz on innate ideas for self-knowledge. Students were very responsive to the structure of the course and were particularly interested in reading and discussing lesser-known philosophers.
