Teaching

Eurasian history and digital methods

My teaching is wide-ranging, touching on my research themes from multiple angles: from early Islam to the Mongols to imperial Russian history.

Courses

I conceive of my undergraduate courses as a loose “Eurasian trilogy,” beginning with Rise of Islam, followed by Empires of the Steppe, and culminating with Imperial Russia. My instructional methodology emphasizes simulations and hands-on activities. A Faculty Spotlight interview on the Eurasian Knot podcast goes into some depth about the ways my research background shapes my approach to teaching.

Digital methods are a central part of my teaching. I have taught Digital Methods in Humanistic Research for several years now: a course in textual analysis, markup, and the practical business of getting a computer to help you read. We work through encoding and structured text, corpus analysis, and — increasingly — what the fast-moving field of AI can and cannot do for historical research. The heart of the course is a research project each student chooses and drives themselves, on whatever they happen to care about, using digital methods to get at it. The course owes a debt to David Birnbaum’s course of similar design.

Current and prospective students

If you are a current undergraduate student of mine, you will find all course materials on Canvas. If you are considering taking one of my classes, you can find sample syllabi at this link.

If you are a current or former student who would like me to write a recommendation, please refer to these instructions.