Teaching in an age of information surplus gives me the opportunity to use the time and space in the classroom to focus on developing critical analysis skills and a sociological imagination among my students.
Overall, in my teaching instruction and pedagogy, I help students view the world they occupy locally and globally by utilizing a sociological lens.
I taught the undergraduate course Sociology of Developing Nations for four semesters at Purdue University. I have draft syllabi available for other courses such as sociology of gender, social movements, research methods, sociological theory, and sociology of family. I can offer courses in these areas and in other electives such as violence against women, intersectionality, race and ethnicity, sociology of food, globalization and other related courses that the department is interested in.
Sociology of Developing Nations
Course Summary and Objectives
This is an introductory course to Sociology of Developing Nations. This course introduces students to the concept of development (theories of development, measuring development) and to various actors (State, International Institutions, Transnational Corporations and Civil Society) involved in international development.
The course puts special emphasis on how globalization impacts development across the world. The course will also focus on how women in the developing world experience various development projects.
While the effort is to understand structural aspects of development, assignments will be included to provide students the opportunity to connect theory to people’s experience of development or underdevelopment.
Critical Reading & Thinking:
The goal of developing ‘critical thinking’ can be daunting for students. So I introduce critical analysis consciously in my teaching. One assignment requires students to submit a critical summary of the week’s readings.
I provide instructions for a brief critical summary of readings, where students are required to identify the major question addressed, the evidence provided, and the conclusion of the reading. These instructions are useful for the students and at the same time ensure consistency in grading.
Assignments
Some students may be resistant to information that contradicts their preconceived notions. Therefore, I incorporate exercises such as “Portfolios of the Poor” where students engage hands-on with financial portfolios of the poor in developing nations, to discover the sociological story by themselves.
Besides critical reading, I also believe that the selection of readings plays an important role in perspective building.
Perhaps the course lends itself to it and I could certainly do more, but I try to curate readings that include the work of authors from diverse backgrounds and those that focus on different countries and regions of the world.
I usually curate my readings from different sources. These are some books that I used to curate the readings for the course.
Teaching Assistantships
I have served as a teaching assistant for the following courses:
- Sociological Theory
- Introduction to Research Methods in Sociology
- Racial and Ethnic Diversity
- Introductory Sociology
