Andy Holmes
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My teaching philosophy

In my work as an educator, three pedagogical practices guide my teaching:

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1) Connecting theory and concepts to current events,

2) Learning from lived experience, and

3) Fostering safe, critical, and empathetic dialogue.


I engage students to learn by connecting current events, popular culture, and political issues. To value lived experience as a theoretically rich place of learning (Collins 1990; Smith 2005), I encourage students to draw inspiration from their own lives. Because topics in sociology (and the social sciences more broadly) can be sensitive, I strive to create classroom atmospheres that foster empathy, care, and space for safer discussions grounded in rigorous, critical engagement with empirical evidence and theory.

As an adjunct professor, I have taught Medicalization of Deviance (a 4th-year sociology class) and Social Control (a 3rd-year sociology class). I have also taught a range of sociology courses as a teaching assistant, including introductory sociology, qualitative methods, policing, criminal justice, law & social theory, gender, sexuality, social movements, and the sociology of the life course and ageing. 
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