Fun Facts

I went to Bangladesh when I was 23; I spent 8 of 14 years since then there, and I continue to be deeply affected by my experiences there. I am an anthropologist by training, but a writer by aspiration; to be a writer is to make of my own narrow experience something shareable, potentially to everyone: I continue to hope that is true, and for myself in particular. I have two children, and they teach me more than I teach them.

About Me

I am an anthropologist and a teacher of anthropology and social science in general. I hope to be a professor of anthropology, and to write ethnographic monographs which speak about everyday life and nevertheless convey the deepest of human truths.

Experience

I was a teacher's assistant in elementary schools in Redlands, California as a Junior in college; then I tutored a middle school student in math and English. I spent two years teaching English and developing English language curriculum in provincial Bangladesh; when I returned to NYC I taught middle and elementary school for a year in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, then I entered graduate school. Since then I have been teaching social science to college students at the chicago">University of Chicago.

Approach

I take my cues from the student; comparative experience helps. But each student, if you listen, will tell you how they need to learn. Listening is key. There is a ritual aspect to learning: I teach using an identical format even when I change the content; in that, students are set at ease. Introduce slowly, reinforce often, and always answer questions which are posed, no matter how tangential: these are my guiding mantras.