Teaching

Most of my teaching is with Minerva University, where I am an Associate Professor. I taught for several years at Yale, and might still be found teaching with Yale summer session.

Complex Systems I and II

This year-long course is required for all first year students at Minerva, as part of the core curriculum. It starts with the observation that everything we do in life is as part of complex social systems, from the school at which we teach and learn, through the economy in which we buy ingredients to make dinner. Engaging with these systems effectively can benefit from many tools and concepts in social science, and engaging with these systems ethically requires engagement with literature in philosophy and political science. Content in this course thus ranges from quantitative tools for network analysis, through psychological research on biases, to debates between moral philosophers. I have also taught graduate level versions of these two courses.

Psychology: From Neurons to Society

This course is required for all social science majors at Minerva. It is built around understanding (1) psychological phenomena at multiple levels, from neurons to societies, (2) how understanding a psychological phenomenon often benefits from understanding complementary explanations about its mechanism, development, evolution, and adaptive value, and (3) the methods by which this understanding is gained. Content in this course thus ranges from neuroscience to social psychology, and has a strong emphasis on best practices in methodology (including, e.g., discussion of the replication crisis and researcher degrees of freedom).

Cutting Edge Debates in Cognitive Science

This is one of many tutorials open to Juniors and Seniors at Minerva. It covers cutting edge debates in cognitive science, with an emphasis on ones that are relevant to many domains of research, work, and life. Which topics are these exactly? Well, this course wouldn’t be very “cutting edge” if I had a description on this static webpage! Content will vary each semester this course occurs.

Capstone Seminar

All Minerva students complete a capstone project in their senior year. These projects represent a larger percent of their work than senior thesis projects at many other schools. Thus, Juniors take this “Capstone Seminar” to provide a foundation for selecting and then tackling a very large project.

Teaching at Yale

Evolution of Morality (sample syllabus)

Theories of Human Uniqueness (sample syllabus)

Junior Seminar in Cognitive Science (sample syllabus)

Junior Colloquium in Cognitive Science (sample syllabus)

Senior Colloquium in Cognitive Science (sample syllabus)