My interdisciplinary background in Media, Film and Geography allows me to approach teaching through a variety of methodologies and frameworks that provoke students’ new ways of thinking. My pedagogic praxis is inspired by a number of key texts including Dee Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning; bell hooks’ Teaching to transgress, Kevin Gannon’s Radical Hope and Paolo’s Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I have recently obtained Fellow status through Advance HE, an internally-recognised teaching accreditation program via Te Arawai Ako at THW-VUW. I am passionate about creating classroom spaces that:
2024 GEOG 312 | Race, Gender, and Development, (forthcoming), Te Herenga Waka / Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
2020 COMS 305 | Media and Social Change, Te Wānanga o Waitaha, University of Canterbury, Christchurch (fixed-term contract) Aotearoa New Zealand
As the Course Coordinator, I developed and delivered 24 lectures, updating the course to better reflect contemporary social movements and introduce students to a variety of new conceptual frameworks in order to analyse how the media reflect and reshape society and space. I based the paper on the principles of wānanga and ako and aimed to create a learning environment in which different lived experiences were valued; students had agency with respect to assessment structures; and the paper contributed to Te Rautaki Whakawhanake Kaupapa Māori (UC Strategy for Māori Development). The course was divided into 4 modules: (1) Media, Hegemony & Power, (2) Race & Intersectionality, (3) Gender, Sexuality & Media, and (4) Social change and Media Futures. It culminated in students developing a group project in which they analysed a media text of their own choice through key theoretical frameworks. Inspired by the course, one group initiated a drive for menstrual items, donating more than 1,000 period products to two local charities working with folks impacted by family and sexual violence. The initiative was subsequently featured in national media. Additionally, the group and I have recently co-published a journal article in Art & the Public Sphere as part of a Special Issue, ‘Politicising Artistic Pedagogies: Teachings, Publics, Struggles’.
2020 & 2019 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, Te Herenga Waka / Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
As the Module Co-coordinator, I developed a 3-week course module based on my PhD research. The topics included: ‘Island Tourism I: Discourse analysis, tourism ephemera, and development’; ‘Island Tourism II: Possibilities and perils’ and ‘More-than-human geographies’. I introduced the class to discourse analysis, paying special attention to raced, gendered, and classed representations in tourism media to show how these representations are imbricated with contemporary social and environmental injustices (and local resistances) in Utila, Honduras. I connected these local ramifications to wider discourses regarding tourism development, in particular within the wider Pacific region, which was the focus in the three other course modules taught by Course Coordinator, Dr Polly Stupples.
2023 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, “More-than-human geographies and Field Trip to Kumutoto”, VUW
2023 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, “Island Tourism and Discourse Analysis”, VUW
2023 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, “Island Tourism II”, VUW“
2023 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Society and Space”, VUW
2023 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Cultural Geography: Traces and Places”, VUW
2023 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Cultural Geography: tracing tourism in Aotearoa”, VUW
2023 SCIS 304 | Science Communication Project, “Video Communication”, VUW
2023 SCIS 304 | Science Communication Project, “Video Production”, VUW
2023 SCIS 304 | Science Communication Project, “Science Communication visual methods”, VUW
2022 SACS 202 | Gender and Sexuality Studies: Key Thinkers and Perspectives, (Invited Speaker), “Feminism(s) and Intersectionality”, VUW
2022 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Introduction to course concepts”, VUW
2022 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Society and Space”, VUW
2022 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Cultural Geography: Traces and Places”, VUW
2022 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Cultural Geography: tracing tourism in Aotearoa”, VUW
2022 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, “More-than-human geographies I”, VUW
2022 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, “More-than-human geographies II”, VUW
2022 GEOG 322 | Islands and Oceans: People, Power & Place, “Island Tourism”, VUW“
2021 Marsden Talk and the Body Research Project, “Design strategies for science communication posters”, VUW
2020 COMS102 | Introduction to News and Journalism, “Profile Writing”, UC
2020 COMS102 | Introduction to News and Journalism, ”Activism”, UC
2020 COMS102 | Introduction to News and Journalism, “Reporting climate change”, UC
2020 MDIA 306 | Media, Gender, and Sexuality, “Postcards and colonial continuities: re-framing tourism media”, VUW
2019 MDIA 306 | Media, Gender, and Sexuality, “Social injustice and feminist, activist media production’, VUW
2019 GEOG 325 | Field Methods, “Designing for Science Communication”, VUW
2019 GEOG 112 | Introduction to Human Geography and Development Studies, “Foundational Concepts: Society and Space”, VUW
2018 MDIA 103 | Popular Media Culture, “Popular Culture and Identity: challenging hegemony through media production”, VUW
2014 General lecture, “Documenting Swamper Iguana Conservation” (in Spanish), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
2013 General lecture, “Management in Changing Environments: Case study, Utila”, University of Toronto, Business School, Mississauga, Canada
2023 – ongoing Doctoral Student Co-Supervisor (with Dr Polly Stupples), Human Geography, VUW (co-supervision of 1 student)
2023-2022 Master’s Student Co-Supervisor (with Dr Mirjam Schindler), Human Geography, VUW (co-supervision of 1 student to completion)
2022 Honours Student Co-Supervisor (with Dr Polly Stupples), Human Geography, VUW (co-supervision of 2 students to completion)
2022 Project Mentor, GEOG 325 | Field Methods, VUW (mentorship of 5 students in 1 group)
2020 Honours Student Co-Supervisor (with Dr Tara Ross), Media and Communications, UC (co-supervision of 3 students to completion)
2019 Student Group Mentor, GEOG 325 | Field Methods, VUW (mentorship of 10 students / 2 groups)