Over the years, my teaching philosophy has become deeply influenced by my experiences as an organizer. As organizers, our power comes from our relationships with one another; we build those relationships, along with the political goals that move us to action, though holistic conversations where we can develop a common vision for a better world together. Here is my teaching philosophy. In short, I do my best to realize anti-racist STEM pedagogy by making space in class to talk honestly about the human contexts of mathematics, especially through our own lived experiences.
Current (actually, slightly in the future—website coming soon!) courses:
- University of California, Irvine
- Math 184: History of Mathematics, Spring 2021. Instructor.
Past courses:
- University of Chicago
- Math 259: Honors Algebra III, Spring 2017. College Fellow.
- Math 258: Honors Algebra II, Winter 2017. College Fellow.
- Math 257: Honors Algebra II, Fall 2016. College Fellow.
- New Mexico Tech
- Math 581: Introduction to Algebraic Geometry, Spring 2014. Lecturer.
- CSE 113: Introduction to Computer Science, Fall 2013. Teaching Assistant.
- CSE 122: Algorithms and Data Structures, Spring 2013. Teaching Assistant.
Materials for past courses available on request.
Summer teaching:
- Collegiate Scholars Program
- How Chance Changes the World, 2020. Co-instructor.
- Fractals, Algorithms, and Us, 2019. Instructor.
- Functions and Topology, 2018. Co-instructor.
- Symmetry!, 2017. Teaching Assistant.
- University of Chicago REU, 2015-2019.
Also, I write a lot of code to make cool visuals when I teach. My favorite language for this is Processing, which I learned in high school and honestly was an incredibly important step in my becoming a mathematician. It can be incredibly buggy sometimes, but it’s great for getting something beautiful on the screen quickly. I used to post my code online (nearly a decade ago, wowzers) here–it’s all legacy now, but I’ve maintained some of them and also occasionally upload new stuff I make for class. To the left is a screenshot from an applet I wrote in 2009, after talking with Melinda Green, that shows the orbits of points in the Mandelbrot mill. Math rocks, y’all.
Mathematical visualization is something I’ve always had a blast tinkering with. Here are some of the images and animations that I think are really gorgeous!
