I teach in the Conflict Resolution and Coexistence MA program at the Heller Policy School at Brandeis University, where I am also affiliated with the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity. Heller attracts a substantial mix of native and non-native English speakers from diverse backgrounds: geographic, racial, religious, socioeconomic and more. I teach regular courses on Strategies for Coexistence and Transitional Justice. I will soon teach a US-focused seminar called Community-Building and Polarization.
I approach teaching as a craft that is built equally on the expertise I bring to each subject and the learning environment I establish inside and outside the classroom. My ultimate goals are to ignite students’ curiosity and give them the tools to critically engage with the world’s social problems. To these ends, my teaching philosophy integrates three components: (1) academic excellence, (2) professional and personal growth and (3) linguistic justice.
Current Courses
introduction to transitional justice
This course introduces transitional justice as a field of research and practice. Over the last four decades, TJ has developed and spread across the globe as a set of theories, concepts, and tools to both understand and support countries emerging from authoritarianism and war. Most commonly associated with mechanisms like truth commissions, amnesties, and reparations, the field started as a focused set of tools tailored to the emerging democracies of Latin America in the 1980s. Today, it encompasses a rich and multidisciplinary field that spans continents and connects local, national, and international actors. The course is divided into three sections. The first provides an overview of TJ history, ideas, and mechanisms. The second delves into some of the key debates that animate the field, exploring the relationship between TJ, peacebuilding, and the root causes of violence and conflict. Finally, the third focuses on the Module’s key take-home: more than a set of tools and mechanisms, TJ is best thought of as a movement within which different actors struggle over the right to narrate history. We end this section and the course with an in-depth look at the United States, where movements for racial justice and economic justice are today incorporating TJ ideas and tools.
strategies for coexistence
This course offers a review of some of the core concepts, skills and practical steps used by practitioners working toward peacebuilding and coexistence at the community level in war-torn contexts. This course is first and foremost a course on how our world works. We confront thorny moral and ethical questions that bedevil practitioners and citizens. What is the role of the external world in alleviating conflict? Is violence sometimes justifiable? Through in-class exercises, reflective writing, and in-depth case studies, students deepen their understanding of the international peace and justice landscapes and expand their understanding of the ethical issues and power dynamics that arise as peacebuilding practitioners. We identify shortcoming of interventions and peacebuilding practices, recognize the basic principles behind effective strategies to build peace and resolve conflict and critically reflect on our own values.
Linguistic Justice
My teaching incorporates principles of linguistic justice: a set of values and tools that aims to make the classroom accessible to and productive for all students, regardless of their linguistic, cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds. If academic excellence is about personal integrity, and personal growth is about exploring and setting goals, linguistic justice is about creating a classroom environment—both its written rules and its unwritten culture—that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion. It focuses on providing students with equal access to the learning experience, embracing the assets they bring through their diverse backgrounds and affording them agency as participants in the classroom. Such words can be cheap. With this approach, I employ a number of concrete tools and methods that I believe genuinely help foster a just and inclusive environment.
There are four key steps: community-building, scaffolding, broadening perspectives, and equity-based feedback. Community-building starts with open dialogue about what my expectations are of student performance and what students’ expectations are of me. Scaffolding entails breaking apart assignments and providing regular feedback. Broadening perspectives includes incorporating diverse backgrounds and identities in my course syllabi and affording students with some choice about how they approach class assignments. Equity-based feedback is rooted in labor-based grading, which evaluates student effort and accounts for where they are starting from. For more resources on linguistic justice, see the Critical Language Awareness Collective at Middlebury College.
syllabi
linguistic justice resources
Banner Photo: Naomi Levy, Oakland, California