B.A. Social Ecology, Goddard College

Ph.D. Communication, University of Washington

• BIS 176 Introduction to Analyzing Media,
• BISMCS 260 Working with Audio: Live Radio Programming
• BISMCS 333 Media and Communication Studies
• BISMCS 343 Media Production Workshop: Journalism for Radio & Podcast
• BIS 410 Topics in Qualitative Inquiry: Discourse Analysis
• BISMCS 472 Multimedia Storytelling in Student Media

I advise the Student Run Radio Station, UWAVE Radio, and all of my courses involve media production in some way. I teach topical courses in media studies, inequality, and social change, as well as applied courses in media production and a range of research methods. My primary goal as a teacher is to help students understand key ideas in the social sciences and humanities, see the connections between themselves and broader social issues, and to foster the practical and analytical skills necessary for contributing to society.

To this end, I strive to create learning environments where students can engage with the course materials, interact with each other through group discussions and collaborative work, and explore different ways of seeing and acting in the social world. I combine teaching strategies and methods that foster excellence in learning and the development of critical thinking skills that are grounded in a sense of social responsibility. I help students to build a tool kit for public communication through multimedia recording and editing, practicing storytelling strategies, and building media portfolios.

Learning is a process that we all participate in. As a teacher, I bring my own professional expertise and provide the class with materials that we can use to learn and explore the subject matter. But we all bring something to share, be it expertise in an area, life experience, or skill sets that enable others to learn. My courses provide a space for us to bring the ‘outside in’, and to experiment with bringing the ‘inside out’ by contributing to the public dialog on important social issues. Students in my courses have produced radio and video podcasts and programs, published blogs, written social commentaries and done original research.

My research centers on the space between language use, technologies of communication, social organization, and political action. I have published and spoken publicly on independent media, community radio, social movements and a range of social issues. My methods of analysis and presentation include content and discourse analysis, interviewing and ethnography, network analysis, and a range of broadcast genres.

Areas of research interest include: sound and radio studies, media studies, discourse and language, technology and society, organizational communication, network studies, political communication, social movements, poverty and homelessness, immigration, and human trafficking.

When not recording sound in the Salish Sea I am either builder or riding bikes on trails and back-roads.