Teaching Philosophy

I come to the university seminar and rehearsal room with over five years of diverse teaching experiences across all ages. My diverse experiences have contributed to my envisioned classroom environment, shaped by active listening, mutual respect, adapting materials and class structures to increase accessibility, encouraging open dialogue with and between students, and a willingness for myself and my students to try, learn, and try again.

My pedagogy is varied in its structure: I incorporate digital technologies into the seminar sessions in compliment with group work, full class discussions and writing exercises. I work to challenge students in a gentle and productive way, and to model the type of work students need to do to undertake the module topics and assignments.

Classes

For the past two years, I have taught core seminar modules as a Teaching Associate in Drama at Queen Mary University of London. I am teaching the second-year seminar module, London Performance Now in spring 2020, after working as a replacement first-marker on the module’s final essay assessment.

London Performance Now (Spring 2020)

• 2nd year seminar module, predominantly enrolled by associate study abroad students from the US
• Discussion-driven module in which students attend different theatre/performance events weekly, and draw on their critical and technical skills to evaluate the craft and sociopolitical context of each performance.
• I draw from my experience as a theatre critic for discussions on how to evaluate performance
• The module strikes a balance between building on first year curriculum skills in critical theory, research and writing, and introducing these concepts and practices for students outside the degree programme

Cultural Histories of Theatre (2017, 1 section; 2018 2 sections)

• 1st year core seminar/lecture module introducing students to key critical theories in feminism, Marxism and post-colonialism, to the practice of conducting theatre history research and analysis, and to key playtexts, Threepenny Opera, Top Girls and A Season in the Congo

Workshops

Guest Seminar Leader, ‘Destination Theatre’ for Dr Kim Solga’s Western University students, summer 2020 (CANCELLED due to COVID-19)

• I planned to introduce students to motion-capture technologies and encourage them to explore mocap and VR as theatrical tools and tools for practice-based research in curation and embodiment

Guest Dramaturg, B.A. Acting at University of West London (Spring 2016)

• Led 3 workshops on dramaturgy for final-year acting students’ final production
  • Introduced gender, postmodern critical theory and how theory can be integrated into acting practice
• Worked with director to develop the production concept and pedagogical strategies for discussing the play with students