Teaching
Teaching Interests
-
Political Sociology
Courses on state-society relations in comparative and global perspective, emphasizing how political, economic, and institutional processes at multiple scales—global (norm diffusion, international organizations, trade, capital flows, transnational brokers), national and local (law and policy, demography, racial regimes, economic development) enable, constrain, and are transformed by civil society organizations, with particular emphasis on Indigenous and migrant civil society.
-
Community-Engaged and Critical Methodologies
Courses on community-engaged research traditions—especially participatory action research methodologies and Indigenous methodologies—with particular emphasis on negotiating between normative standards of social-scientific rigor, relational accountability to marginalized communities, and real-world social impact.
-
Colonialisms and Imperialisms in Comparative and Global Perspective
Courses on how global and historical variations in colonial and imperial formations shape, constrain and discipline anticolonial movements, with particular emphasis on dynamics wrought by economic dependency, forced political incorporation, militarism, racial formations, migrant management regimes,
-
Indigenous Oceanic Political Thought
Courses on contemporary Indigenous Oceanic political thought (1970s–present) as a critical lens to engage with key themes in Indigenous politics, including settler-colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, racism, queerphobia, heteropatriarchy, sovereignty, self-determination, nationalism, regionalism, migration, development, dependency.
-
Social Movements
Courses on dominant sociological theories of social movements, with particular emphasis on social movement process—including but not limited to group boundary work, rhetorical framing, brokerage, resource mobilization, political claims-making, and organizing strategies—across social movements for economic justice, Black lives, Indigenous sovereignty, migrant justice, and queer liberation in the United States.
Current Teaching Rotation
-
Introduction to Indigenous Studies
Introductory undergraduate-level primer on Indigenous politics, using key concepts within Indigenous studies (including Indigeneity, kinship, sovereignty, nationhood, settler-colonialism, imperialism) to analyze pertinent domains of contemporary social problems and political struggles (e.g., anti-Blackness and systemic racism, migration, MMIWG2S, Indigenous data sovereignty, Indigenous resurgence, Indigenous internationalisms).
Syllabus here.
-
Decolonial Participatory Action Research
Advanced undergraduate/graduate-level seminar on Indigenous and participatory action research methodologies, emphasizing analytical tools to navigate trade-offs of participatory action research design when working directly with Indigenous peoples to advance ongoing struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
Syllabus here.
-
Key Theories and Concepts in Indigenous Studies
Introductory graduate-level seminar elaborating on the key concepts of Indigenous studies (e.g., land, knowledge, sovereignty, self-determination, nationhood, kinships) and situating Indigeneity among other key humanistic and social-scientific analytical frameworks (e.g., postcolonial, critical-race, feminist, queer).
Syllabus here.
-
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Advanced undergraduate-level course surveying the Indigenous-led efforts to increase Indigenous access to and control over data on Indigenous peoples, lifeways, territories, and resources, with particular emphasis on the political economy of tribal and Indigenous nonprofit data governance in the continental United States.
Syllabus forthcoming.
-
Indigenous Political Thought
Advanced undergraduate-level seminar on contemporary Indigenous political thought, with particular emphasis on Oceania (i.e., the Pacific Islands) as a critical site of theorization, covering key topics including mobility, militarism, nuclearism, tourism, nationalism, regionalism, and globalism.
Syllabus forthcoming.