There have been many influences on my teaching, but the first, early influence was my mother. She was an admired foreign language teacher. She taught French and Spanish, and she taught us. Her methods, which predate Paolo Freire, adhere to the notion of a critical pedagogy, which rejects the idea that knowledge is ever politically neutral and argues that teaching is an inherently political act, whether the teacher acknowledges that or not. This is a natural strain in teaching that runs through Maxine Greene, bell hooks, Henry Giroux, and many more…

I teach many courses at Middlebury. As a program, we each rotate through Writing for Academic Purposes. A very popular, and important course that was originally developed to create diversity in the Environmental Studies Program, Social Class and the Environment. In the Spring 2020 course, students began a first draft of a textbook, which will be an ongoing effort in future courses. Here it is, still in rough draft form (Covid-19 affected the development).