Teaching

I have served as a graduate student instructor, a lead instructor and an adjunct lecturer for a range of three-four credit/unit courses at my graduate institution (UC-Berkeley), for the City University of New York, Brooklyn College (CUNY-BC), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and Dartmouth College. The average number of students for each class that I have taught has been thirty-two, and I have taught one to two courses per academic year on my home campus, or while away conducting my ethnographic research in the New York metropolitan area.

 

As an ethnic studies scholar trained in both sociological and interdisciplinary methods and specializing in urban Latina/o/x communities in the United States, I am particularly interested in teaching courses on Latina/o/x ethnography, disability justice, and carework. In the classroom, I consistently seek to make explicit connections between my role as a researcher and my role as a teacher. Regardless of class size and topic, I integrate general research skills that students will try hands-on in class, whether it is to learn to perform close readings of texts and “read for the argument”; assemble a research bibliography about a particular topic; conduct, transcribe, and code an ethnographic interview; generate field notes from participant-observation; administer a survey; or shoot a short documentary film. In addition to the specialty courses outlined below, I am also prepared to teach a series of introductory courses, including Introduction to Latina/o/x Studies, Introduction to Ethnic Studies and topics courses on Comparative Latina/o/x Migrations, Latina/o/x Documentary Film, Latina/o/x Diasporas in the U.S., Latina/o/x Independent Studies and Service Learning Projects. The courses below can be adapted to a 200-level, 300-level specialized topic course, or a 400-level seminar.

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For more on Melanie's Teaching, click here for her virtual teaching portfolio.