Teaching Philosophy

My overarching teaching objectives is to teach students to work with primary source material whether it be in the field, lab or studio. This technique supports students gaining the confidence to make their own observations and decisions based on their personal research experience. For example, if my art history student is researching pigments used in archival manuscripts I have them work with conservators and the original manuscript or if I have a student interested in the lead content in an urban oyster in NYC, I have my student in a canoe in the Gowanus Canal Brooklyn sourcing oysters. Though my teaching encompasses both art and science I find there is no way around specialization in these fields which is why I also encourage my students to collaborate with each other and find mentors and colleagues in their field and learn invaluable team building skills. I also teach project management skills, I encourage my students to think about their end product or results and work backwards to create a schedule and resources needed to achieve their goals. I find this straightforward approach in which primary source material is the foundation works across disciplines and creates a clear methodology and analytical strategy towards learning, problem solving and actualization of real world scenarios that my students can build on for a lifetime.