Teaching
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In the classroom, I approach history as the ideal discipline for teaching students to think critically about the world around them. Historians investigate and interpret the past through close reading, analysis of evidence, and careful argumentation. When students practice these skills they develop habits that serve a lifetime. They learn to evaluate information and ideas, assess accuracy and relevance, identify bias and its effects. And because history connects our own lives to national and global developments, and to our fellow human beings, it encourages empathy. It also expands our sense of the possible: when we historicize, ideas and conditions that seem timeless, universal, natural, or inevitable are revealed as the product of a particular time and place. History instills the skills, habits, and inclinations of engaged citizens.
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