TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
“Art is not at thing...it is a way.” – Elbert Hubbard
As a young person, I was happily an artistic dilettante. Whether it be a studio art class, puttering in a darkroom, singing in the chorus, honing my drafting skills, or participating in all manners of dance from ballet to flamenco, I was always eager to experiment with a new medium. From an early age interdisciplinary has been at the heart of my personal and professional experience, and greatly informs my philosophy as an educator.
After earning my BA in Architecture, I worked in the field for close to a decade, collaborating with others to design everything from high-end interiors, to educational facilities, to large scale international parks. My diverse portfolio allowed me to discover different facets of the architectural field, while exploring the influence of history and culture on the design process. Intrigued by reciprocal influence between art and society, I moved on to earn my graduate degree in Sociology. In the years since, I have managed a team of field interviewers for a $31 million evaluation study of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; taught courses that explore artistic taste as a form of status marking, the production and consumption of artistic and cultural goods, and the role of culture in systemic inequality; and joined the College Park Scholars community where I collaborate regularly with a team of talented faculty and staff to support a living-learning program that thrives on experiential and interdisciplinary learning.
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For me, the intersection between fields, mediums, and cultures has always been the most fruitful ground for creativity and innovation. Art can be a window into understanding people and ways of life that we are unfamiliar with. Interdisciplinary collaborations can spark new insight. And stretching beyond one’s comfort zone can build resilience, communication skills, and an appreciation for the diversity of art, ideas, and people that fill our world. The depth and breadth of my own interdisciplinary background informs the way I teach, the way I collaborate with colleagues and community partners, and the mindset I help my students cultivate in themselves.
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Challenging and Expanding Conceptions of Art
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What is art? This simple question serves as a driving force in my work as an instructor in the Arts Scholars Program. Many students enter our program with a fixed definition of what constitutes art. To the visual artist, art is painting. To the musician, art is a concerto. To the writer, art is the next great American novel. My challenge is to encourage students to see that art is at once all mediums traditional and non-traditional: paint, music, dance, writing, theatre, craft, graffiti. But moreover, my challenge lies in helping students come to know that art, as Hubbard so astutely notes, is a way. Art is a way to express emotion, pose questions, and convey ideas both big and small. Art is way for the community to forge connections with one another and collectively shape the world they inhabit. Art is a way to see the world in a new way. As such, the arts and humanities are not less than or peripheral to other disciplines, but central to our collective ability to innovate, empathize, and to imagine creative solutions to our personal and societal challenges.
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The activities and assignments I utilize as an instructor encourage students to step outside their comfort zones and broach the question of “What is art?” with increased depth and vigor. Guest artist workshops, field trips, and assignments such as the “Arts Pentathlon” challenge students to actively experiment with new mediums and redefine what counts as art. For example, for several years now we have welcomed renown Vogue dancer Marquis Revlon Clanton to our first-semester freshman colloquium where he leads students in a Vogue dancing workshop while sharing context on the historic role voguing has played in cultivating a safe space among African American and Latine LGBTQIA communities. As students spin, dip, and practice their “duckwalks,” the giggles that follow give way to a new understanding of Vogue, not only as a legitimate artform, but as a mode of self-expression, and a mechanism for building inclusive community while fighting for social change.
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Beyond challenging them to expand their definitions of art, I encourage students to critically examine the role the arts can serve in our individual and collective lives. Whether it be first-year students exploring how the arts and humanities shape our personal identities and mutual experiences in their 1st Year Art Exhibition, or sophomores using their ArtsFest capstone projects to develop communication and research skills, I want my students to see that the arts hold a place in all of our lives, whether we pursue them professionally, or in our own personal time.
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Developing an Active & Collaborative Artistic Practice
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I believe that students learn best by doing. To this end, I endeavor to create a variety of hands-on and experiential learning opportunities for my students both in, and outside the classroom. My classrooms are places of action, experimentation, and community building. For example, in our first-year Fall colloquium (CPSA100), students participate in a series of campus visits. They explore the intersection of art and STEM by making buttons at the UMD Sandbox, weave coasters at Studio A, create augmented reality ‘apps’ at the Collaboratory, go ‘behind the scenes’ at the Clarice to understand the complex design and coordination required to make this premier performing arts venue flourish, and learn how to be more active consumers of art while visiting the UMD Gallery and Driskell Center. In making, discussing, and making some more, they gain a better understanding of the variety of techniques and applications art holds, as well as the many resources available to them on campus.
Outside the classroom, I work to plan co-curricular activities that build and expand on what students experience in the classroom. The wide variety of field trips, Teaching Assistant led Craft & Chat events, Concert in the Quad, and other experiential programming expose students to new and innovative artists and artistic mediums while creating opportunities for students to get to know one another better.
While many envision the work of an artist as something carried out while sequestered away in solitude, I strive to help my students see that the process of art-making is often a collaborative endeavor. Students learn about the many hands and minds it takes to produce art in the professional world through discussions with practicing artists, and by modeling these practices themselves. For example, in all of my courses, students engage in peer feedback and critique using Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. This process teaches students that feedback is less about delivering unsolicited advice and more about posing questions that help the artist see their work in a new way. Although nearly all students find the experience of sharing unfinished and imperfect work unsettling at first, they come away with a new appreciation for, and skill in, giving and receiving effective feedback. My goal is to help them learn that feedback and collaboration cannot only make them stronger artists, but can provide them with a repertoire of transferable skills to carry with them in their academic lives and future careers.
Cultivating an inclusive, equitable, and supportive learning environment
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Having worked closely with students across a range of identities, I strive to foster an open and safe space where students feel comfortable expressing their unique experiences, insights, and concerns. Whether developing a lesson plan, organizing an event, or mentoring students facing adversity, I listen actively, research diligently, advocate heartily, and provide students with the skills and confidence that will allow them to thrive.
Inclusive pedagogy begins with acknowledging that all students enter the classroom with different backgrounds, needs, learning styles and strengths… a fact that has grown all the more resonant as students and instructors alike have worked to find a new footing after the pandemic. To ensure all students have an opportunity to reach their academic goals, I go beyond teaching to different learning styles and honoring accommodations requests, and have incorporated flexible deadlines, additional email outreach, and extensive student advising as a regular part of my pedagogical practice. I make it a point to approach my students not simply as scholars, but as people. I learn their names, their interests, and work to cultivate relationships based on trust and respect. My students know that should they find themselves struggling, whether academically, socially, or emotionally, I am someone they can come to.
Inclusion also rests on ensuring our guest speakers, field trips, and campus visits reflect and honor the diversity of our student body. Regular collaborations such as campus visits to the David C. Driskell Center and field trips to the Clarice’s BlackLight Summit demonstrate a commitment to celebrating the work of artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Moreover, these collaborations allow us to actively support a local and emerging artist population and ensure all students see examples of scholars and artists whose voices, bodies, and messages echo their own. While these practices require a significant investment of time and energy, they pay strong dividends as students consistently report they feel Arts Scholars is a welcoming and inclusive community, where all voices are valued.
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