Bridging Scholarship and Teaching
I thoroughly enjoy teaching and working with students from diverse backgrounds and life experiences. I am comfortable and knowledgeable in teaching online and in person. My scholarship informs my teaching, and I see the classroom as a space where I can explore curiosities, concepts, and phenomena that does not always fit in my research. I have taught courses on US and Latin American History at the University of Arizona, and Native History, Decolonization, and Latin America at Virginia Tech. My classes challenge students to consider questions of human diversity and embrace Native perspectives as we decolonize and Indigenize the History of Turtle Island and Abya Yala (what is now called North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean). Below are a few courses that I have taught:
Undergraduate Courses
Conquest and Culture in Latin American Empires (Intro Level Course)
This course, which I introduced to Virginia Tech’s offerings, focuses on Mesoamerica and the Andes from 1200 to 1650. Students learn about Native political, economic, and cultural structures and trends in the late post classic and late horizon periods. This includes a core discussion of various Maya polities, the Nahua triple alliance, Zapotec states, and Tawantinsuyu in the Andes. Students are then challenged to comprehend how the arrival of European people, languages, religion, and colonialism altered Mesoamerica and the Andes. This course exposes students to Native depopulation, subjugation, and more importantly Indigenous resistance and response. As in all of my classes, students are encouraged and forced to understand that Native peoples still exist and make critical connections between the present and past.
Historical Methods
Students in this course learn the basic, yet paramount, differences between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. I also use current events to illustrate the importance of using viable and trust-worthy sources. After reading methodological and theoretical works, students go on to write a 15-page research paper using primary and secondary sources. My course can take one of two focuses, depending on the semester: students must pick a historical topic that engages race, class, or gender in Latin America from 1492-1990; another topic I use for the class asks students to use special collections and online resources to explore topics in Virginia Native history.
Colonial Latin America (Intro Undergraduate Course)
This course lays out the foundation of Abya Yala (Latin America) before the arrival of Europeans. In this class we focus on four Indigenous zones: the Caribbean, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Amazon. After students familiarize themselves with these areas, we learn about European incursions in the region and the aftermath of violence, destruction, and resistance. Students learn about European attempts to establish societies that mirror Europe, and Indigenous survivance and Black resistance.
Graduate Courses
Colonialism and Decolonization in the Americas
This course insures that students understand the main principles of colonialism and colonization in the Americas. More importantly, students also read a diverse range of books and articles authored by people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQA+ community. Ultimately, students contend with Indigenous and Black perspectives on colonialism, and ideas for decolonization and Indigenization.
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