List of Course Taught

Below you will find a list of courses I have taught along with brief descriptions of the course material, class plan, and assignment structure.  For more detail, please see the linked syllabi, course websites, teaching materials, and assignments.

Courses with Full Responsibility

Creative Commons

Virtual Reality: The Ethics of Future Technology (Tufts University ExCollege, 2021)

Syllabus, Course Website, Teaching Materials, Assignments, Evaluations

This course was offered as part of Tufts University Experimental College.  It was designed as a research-oriented philosophy of technology class, focused on ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical issues related to virtual reality, broadly construed.  The class began with a crash course in some of the basic questions in the philosophy of technology and virtual reality, including questions about the relationship between virtualization and consciousness or intelligence, the ontological status of virtual objects, and the social and ethical implications of VR technologies.  The students then divided themselves into several groups, each organized around a different theme, ranging from VR and AI, to simulation theory the ethics of avatars and embodiment.  Over the course of the semester, each student developed a unique project based on original research in their chosen sub-field. The class was highly collaborative.  Students would select weekly readings, present drafts of their work to each other, and work through difficult philosophical questions together.  Ultimately, the students compiled their projects into a class journal that you can see here (www.techandethics.com under “Current Issue”).  Students also built their own avatars and experimented in our own virtual environment.  Originally, I had planned to coordinate with the Brookline Interactive Group (https://brooklineinteractive.org/) to bring VR equipment to class so the students could have even more hands-on experience, but COVID made that impossible.  In this course we read Thomas Metzinger, Aristotle, Maria Bittarello, David Chalmers, Nick Bostrom, Martin Heidegger, Ray Kurzweil, Robert Rosenberger, and Michael Heim.  I would love to continue to develop this course into a high-level interdisciplinary seminar.  Please see the attached syllabus and course reviews for more information.

Gudrun Newman, Self-Respect (c. 2018)

Introduction to Ethics (Boston University, 2021)

Syllabus, Course Website, Teaching Materials, Assignments, Evaluations

My own take on a philosophy department staple.  I framed this course as an exploration of normativity—“shoulds” in the language of the syllabus.  I find that framing ethics classes in that way helps students to see the deep connection between course material and the important decisions they make in their own lives.  The class was divided into three units, “The Good Life,” “Doing The ‘Right Thing,’” and “Problems in Practical & Political Ethics.”  The first unit surveyed several different approaches to the question of what should count as a life well lived and engaged with pertinent metaethical questions.  The second unit wrestled with the Kantianism/Utilitarianism divide, and the third broached topics in the philosophy of technology, and questions concerning colonialism, race, feminism, gender, and justice.  The third unit was by far the most exciting and successful, and in the future, I plan to dedicate more of the course to those questions.  In the course we read Mary Midgley, Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Ruth Chang, Simone de Beauvoir, Singer, Rawls, Lewis Gordon, Franz Fanon, Judith Butler, Michael Sandel, and others.  Please see the attached syllabus and course reviews below for more information.

Klaus Bürgle, Traffic of the Future (1959)

Future, Futurism, & Technology (Boston University, 2019, 2020)

Syllabus 1 (2019), Syllabus 2 (2020), Course Website, Teaching Materials, Assignments, Evals (2019), Evals (2020)

This course was a Philosophy/Research Writing seminar hosted by the Writing Program at Boston University.  It was the prototype for the course I later taught at Tufts.  It was a thematic survey of major questions and problems in the philosophy of technology.  The aim of the course was to help students develop a burgeoning expertise in a specific area of the philosophy of technology and then use that expertise to engage meaningfully with difficult research questions.  The areas included AI, Computing, and Robotics; Information Tech, Privacy, and Entertainment; Transhumanism and Augmentation; Geo-Engineering and the Environment; Space Technology; and Materials Science, Energy, and Industry.  The class was designed to help students develop research skills and the ability effectively employ multiple modes of communication, including digital and multimedia expressions.  It was also intended to broaden their awareness of current and future ethical issues generated by the rapid development of modern technology. 

Caravaggio, The Sacrifice of Isaac (1604)

Art, Existentialism, & Authenticity (Boston University, 2018, 2019)

Syllabus 1 (2018), Syllabus 2 (2019), Teaching Materials, Assignments, Evals (2018), Evals (2019)

This class was a Philosophy/Writing Seminar focused on the intersection between the philosophy of art and existentialism.  We focused on questions selfhood, meaning, authenticity, religion, knowledge, and creativity.  In addition to reading traditional existential thinkers like Søren Kierkegaard, Simone de Beauvoir, and Dostoyevsky, we also read the Dhammapada, and works by Maïa Stepenberg and Hermann Hesse.  The class was also asked to watch films by Ingmar Bergman, Ron Fricke, and engage with the art of Marina Abramovich, Elaine de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and others.

Raphael, The School of Athens (1509-1511)

Great Philosophers (Boston University, 2015)

Syllabus, Assignments

This class was a historically oriented alternative to an Introduction to Philosophy course.  Taking Kant’s three philosophical questions (“What can I know?”  What must I do?”  “What may I hope?”) as a starting point, we explored a series of figures, ranging from Plato and Aristotle through Descartes, Kant, and Kierkegaard. 

Courses with Teaching Fellow Responsibility (2013-2021)

In the below courses I served as a Teaching Fellow. My responsibilities included preparing the syllabus, planning, preparing and grading assignments, teaching weekly sections, hosting regular office hours, answering student questions, serving as an intermediary between the professor and students, and managing course logistics.