My philosophy of teaching has evolved over the past eleven years of teaching at college level. I am in my fourth year as full-time faculty in the Liberal Studies Program and New York University, and before that, while a graduate school at New York University, I taught in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the Gallatin School, the College of Arts and Science and as an adjunct at the Eugene Lang School, The New School University. Most of the courses I taught during that period were topic-based freshman composition and creative writing courses of my own design, however, I also designed and taught courses on Caribbean Literature, African Literature and Black Atlantic Women’s Writing.
When students enter the classroom, they bring with them a range of skills, knowledge and potentials. No matter what their level of ability, I aim to facilitate the application of their skills and knowledge to course materials that challenge them to extend themselves beyond their existing capability and level of understanding. The course I am teaching this semester titled “Women, Literature and Film” exemplifies my approach to literary study. The course introduces students to fiction, film and theory that reflect on women’s creativity and experience across cultures. Students read closely and view selected literary and film texts created by women from a variety of geographic locations and cultural contexts. I utilize literary criticism and theory in addition to primary texts to promote students’ understanding of the texts themselves, and through them, the diversity of women’s experience. My aim is to facilitate the application of student knowledge, their critical skills and their imaginations to the texts and assignment on the syllabus, thereby fostering their ability to interpret ideas derived from literary and theoretical readings through their own insights.