- William Butler Yeats
I have experience teaching large lecture classes and small graduate seminars in both in-person and online environments, as well as experience designing new courses and mentoring graduate students. I also coordinate the Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies at U.C. Berkeley, providing mentorship for doctoral students looking to deepen their engagement in STS. (Please see my
In collaboration with colleagues in History, I created the syllabus and am creating all lectures, assignments, and assessments for this course.
I have extensively redesigned this course, re-recording asynchronous content in 2021-2022, creating and iteratively improving assignments and evaluation metrics, and updating the syllabus with new readings and case studies every semester.
I expanded this large lecture course (typically enrolling 60-90 students) from a two-unit, half-semester offering to a three-unit, full-semester offering, rewriting and reorganizing the syllabus in the process. I updated the syllabus with new readings and case studies every time I taught it. I have also experimented with new ways of taking attendance and fostering active small-group and full-class discussions in a large lecture course.
I created the syllabus and all lectures, assignments, and assessments for this course, and coordinated a number of School of Information guest speakers throughout the semester.
Media Psychology (spring 2011): This upper-division and graduate course reviews current discussions about and evidence for the psychological significance of media. We cover traditional media (e.g., television, radio, newspapers, and film), as well as a variety of content genres (e.g., entertainment, news, and advertising). Much of the course focuses on new media (e.g., interactive games, virtual reality, online social networks). Among the psychological processes whose relevance to media use we will consider are perception, attention, memory, comprehension, emotional response, arousal, and unconscious processing. (description adapted from syllabus)
Research Methods in Communication (fall 2009): Conceptual and practical concerns underlying commonly used quantitative approaches, including experimental, survey, content analysis, and field research in Communication. (description from course catalog)
Digital Media in Society (spring 2009): This upper-division and graduate course surveys contemporary theories of the impact of digital media on the individual, the community and the state. We explore the dynamics of digital media and the ways those dynamics shape and have been shaped by ongoing processes of social change. By the end of the course, students have a sense of just what is and isn t "new" about new media. They will be able to critique and synthesize the ways others have characterized the social impact of digital media. (description adapted from syllabus)
Computer Graphics (2003)
Volunteer teacher, AI-4-All summer institute, U.C. Berkeley (2018)
What about my own training? Classes only tell part of the story, but here are the ones I've taken as part of my higher education:
Classes Taught at University of California, Berkeley
AI and Society (STS C34, spring 2027): This course teaches students to analyze human dimensions of artificial intelligence through readings, historical materials, writing, and discussion. We will consider questions such as: How have AI systems been conceived and created, by whom, and what perspectives and priorities have been embedded in them (or not)? What legacies do AI systems draw on, from ideas of human intelligence to automation and labor? How do AI systems work, and what may happen as they are introduced into human settings? What stories have been told about AI, and what cultural work do those stories do? How are AI systems shaping our experience of creativity, learning, labor, privacy, safety, and everyday life? Knowing AI’s past and present, how do we think about its future? No technical background is required, just curiosity and a willingness to think carefully about technologies shaping our lives. Students who take this course will be able to explain core AI ideas at a conceptual level, analytically engage with the histories and implications of AI systems across a number of contemporary case studies, assess claims about AI's capabilities and risks, and articulate informed positions on some policy and ethical debates surrounding this rapidly evolving technology. The course will also give students experience with analytical writing and other important academic skills, including notetaking and participating in discussion. (Cross-listed as STS C34 and HISTORY C34)
Behind the Data: Humans and Values (DATASCI 231, fall 2017-present): This online, flipped-classroom course provides an introduction to the legal, policy, and ethical implications of data. We examine how these issues arise throughout the full data lifecycle, from collection, to storage, processing, analysis and use, with a focus on real-world implications and case studies. Topics include privacy, classification, surveillance, fairness, discrimination, decisional autonomy, and duties to warn or act. Case studies include criminal justice, national security, personal and public health, marketing, civic surveillance, politics, education, employment, and more. We discuss technical, legal, and market approaches to mitigating and managing discrete and compound sets of concerns, and explore the strengths and benefits of competing and complementary approaches. This course is an elective in the online Masters in Information and Data Science (MIDS) program and was a requirement for the 5th Year MIDS program.
Social Issues of Information (INFO 203, spring 2021-spring 2026): This course, required for the Master's in Information Management and Systems (MIMS) degree, is designed to be an introduction to the topics and issues associated with the study of information and information technology, from a social scientific perspective. As a result, this course will introduce students to a broad range of applied and practical problems, theoretical issues, as well as methods for answering different types of questions. The following three questions will guide the material throughout the course:
As we work our way through many different topics and problems in information, we will focus on various levels of analysis from the micro (i.e., interpersonal relationships and information in small groups) to the macro (i.e., organizational and institutional problems of information). By the end of the course, students will be familiar with social scientific approaches to information and information technology, as well as many of the key issues and the methods used to gain insight into these issues through empirical research. This knowledge is essential to having a well-rounded understanding of information issues in professional environments.
Introduction to Information Studies (INFO 101, spring 2022): This class introduces key issues, concepts, and methodologies of information studies. Students consider questions such as: what does it mean to live in an information society? What are the human and social aspects of the design of technology? How do policy, law, and other social forces affect this? How can technology and data be designed for social good? Students will become familiar with the kinds of research and multidisciplinary methods used in information studies. Students leave the course with tools to understand the politics, economics, and culture of information systems; a nuanced understanding of contemporary case studies involving technological systems in society; and a solid foundation for further study in information science. Students will be introduced to the technology industry, technology design, human-computer interaction, and 'the sociotechnical'; will establish a foundation for succeeding in additional upper-division INFO courses; will gain a nuanced understanding of contemporary case studies involving technological systems in society; and will learn tools to understand the politics, economics, and culture of information systems.
Science and Technology Studies Research Seminar (STS C250, 2018-2019):
This interdisciplinary seminar is aimed at graduate students in fields related to science and technology studies who are undertaking significant writing projects, such as dissertation chapters, journal articles, or conference papers. This seminar will serve two functions. First, it will act as a writing lab in which students will share their projects for discussion and critique from the perspective of science and technology studies. Second, it will help develop students professional skills, particularly the ability to speak across academic disciplines about one s areas of expertise. Above all, the seminar will be grounded in a collaborative learning community where students will share their knowledge and ideas with each other in a highly interdisciplinary, constructive environment. STS 250 is one of the two required courses for the Ph.D. designated emphasis (D.E.) in STS. (Cross-listed as STS C250, ANTHRO C273, ESPM C273, and HISTORY C251)
Teaching Assistant Experience, Department of Communication, Stanford University
Media, Culture, and Society (winter 2009, winter 2010, winter 2011): More than at any other time in American history, we live immersed in media. This introductory course aims to map that immersion and to equip students with the analytical tools to inhabit it critically. We examine the structure and regulation of the media industries, the roles of producers and consumers in the American media system, and the impact of new technologies and globalization on the mass media. By the end of the course, students have a solid command of core theories in contemporary media studies and a sharp analytical scalpel with which to dissect the claims of contemporary media makers. (description adapted from syllabus)
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley (Grader)
Efficient Algorithms and Intractable Problems (2003)
Community Teaching and Outreach
While I've done a variety of service, these represent more sustained community-oriented teaching activities.
Co-organizer and teacher, Richmond City Minecraft Summer Camp (2015-2018)
Co-organizer and teacher, Girls Code After-School Workshop, ITA/Kennedy High School, Richmond, CA (2016)
Volunteer teacher, Sunday Kids Code Club at Redwood City Library (2014-2016)
Co-organizer and teacher, Mad Hot DanceSport, East Palo Alto Charter School (2006-2009)
Teacher, Saturday Night Stargazing docent, and curriculum developer, Holt Planetarium, Lawrence Hall of Science (2000-2002)
Teaching assistant (math, science), Willard Middle School, Berkeley, CA (1999-2000)
Partner dancing teacher (ballroom, swing, Latin, blues/fusion) (sporadically, 2001-present)
Classes taken as a Stanford graduate student
2012-2013 school year
Humanities Dissertation Workshop
STS & Postcolonialism
2011-2012 school year
Humanities Dissertation Workshop
2010-2011 school year
COM231: Media Ethics & Responsibility
On leave - fieldwork in Paraguay
Spring 2010
Spanish 13C
EDUC298: Learning in a Networked World
SOC346: Ethnography workshop
Winter 2010
Spanish 12C
Spanish 60B
SOC346: Ethnography workshop
Fall 2009
Spanish 11C
SOC346: Ethnography workshop
Seminar on Liberation Technologies
Spring 2009
ANTH306: Anthropological Research Methods
Accelerated Spanish 1B
Conversational Spanish 10
Winter 2009
ANTH311: Writing Ethnographies
Accelerated Spanish 1A
Fall 2008
On leave - Nokia Research
Spring 2008
ANTH231: Anthropology of Globalization
SOC346: Ethnography Workshop
COM301: Curriculum Development & Pedagogy
Winter 2008
STAT209: Statistical Models & Social Science
COM379: History & Evolution of Communication
Fall 2007
ANTH301: History of Anthropological Theory
ANTH280: Ethnographies of Africa
SOC320: Social Psychology
SOC346: Ethnography Workshop
Spring 2007
COM220: Digital Media in Society
COM320: Media & Cultural History
COM314: Qualitative Methods in Communication
COM319: Multivariate Regression
ANTH232: Science, Technology, & Gender
Winter 2007
CS378: Phenomenology
COM269: Computers & Interfaces
COM368: Advanced Experimental Research in User Interfaces
MAPSS colloquium
Fall 2006
ANTH255: Virtual Communities
COM208: Media Processes & Effects
COM311: Communication Theory
SOC380: Qualitative Methods in Sociology
MAPSS colloquium
Classes taken as a Berkeley graduate student
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