How did you get interested in City Studies/Human Geography?
I did my Masters in urban planning because I felt that the city was a critical and feasible site for intervening in social injustice. Once in the department I found geography to be a wonderfully interdisciplinary place to bring together philosophy and the every day to tackle these concerns at many scales.
What are you working on right now?
The overarching theme of my current work is how we deal with questions of emotion and the body in research and knowledge production. I am most interested in how theories of affect, emotion and embodiment can contribute to understanding subjectivity in research methods. I am looking at this at a few different sites including my own research practices, implications for teaching research methods in the classroom, and implications for policy development and evidence based decision-making.
What do you bring to the undergraduate class room?
I have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the material I teach. I am also very approachable as I consider myself a facilitator rather than an authority. I try to create enthusiasm for learning and connect new ideas to things that matter in student’s lives.
What is one helpful tip you’d like to share with your students to help them succeed at UTSC?
Ask questions! Put up your hand, go to office hours, ask me to explain it again differently. Its my job and I like to do it!