My Teaching

On one wall of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, where I gained my first experience as a classroom teacher years ago, and where I now volunteer on the Board of Directors, a student-painted mural illustrated the school’s motto: “La educación rompe las cadenas,” “education breaks chains.” My philosophy of education has always been indebted to my time at Albizu Campos, and that motto has remained a touchstone. I love teaching because it creates an opening for new possibilities. Students in my classes take center stage as active leaders in a learning process that aims to enhance the critical thinking skills necessary for long-term transformative engagement with the multiple communities these students inhabit.

Courses I have taught at the undergraduate level include:

African American History

Epidemic Disease in United States History

How Races Are Made in US History

Introduction to Latino Cultural Studies

Latin American History

Latino Studies Capstone Seminar on Community-Based Research

Latinos and Latinas in the United States

My Academic Experience

North American History to 1865

Oral History Techniques

Puerto Rico and the United States

Race and Ethnicity in US History

Recent United States History

Senior Thesis

Slavery and Emancipation

United States History for Elementary Educators

United States History since 1865

US Latinx History

US Thought and Culture, 20th Century:  Social Movements & Popular Music

Women and Gender in United States History

Video Lectures

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I taught remotely like so many others. As part of this process, I recorded a series of video lectures for several courses listed below, including both halves of the US survey course, as well as the Race and Ethnicity course, and others. I have uploaded all video lectures (75 in total, about 17 hours combined) from the two halves of the US survey course to a YouTube playlist. While these are obviously not the sum total of my teaching, and while they are increasingly dated due to their age, I share them here.

Video lectures recorded during the COVID pandemic as a supplement for remote teaching of both halves of the US History survey courses at Manchester University, Indiana.