Teaching

I have been teaching philosophy for 20 years, at Carleton and the University of Toronto. My classes range in level from second-year undergraduate to first year PhD and address topics in political philosophy, bioethics and health justice, philosophy, economics, and public policy, environmental ethics, and feminist philosophy.

Philosophy of teaching

As a philosophy teacher, I see my goal in the classroom as one of providing students with the requisite tools to evaluate complex problems and to develop a deep appreciation for the richness of the philosophical tradition. I believe I succeed in this by helping the students come to see that they are already encountering, engaging with, and solving philosophical problems in their daily lives. My classroom becomes a venue for students to consider the views of great philosophers, but also to discuss, sharpen, scrutinize, and possibly reconsider the judgments they themselves call upon when faced with the profound moral and political complexities of our time.

I believe the philosophy teacher should try to accomplish her goals not by demanding of her students that they come to accept one right answer to any given problem, but by encouraging them to seek greater coherence amongst the beliefs they already hold. Where a student’s views are inconsistent or contradictory, the philosophy teacher must help them come to see that these views must be reconsidered or abandoned. The goal of philosophical teaching, in my view, is thus not to convince the students that there are absolutes only accessible to the true philosopher, but rather to show them that their own views must be rendered defensible to others if they are to retain them with intellectual integrity.           

I see my graduate seminars as forums for the process John Rawls referred to as public reason. This process, intended for use in the identification of policies appropriate to a society characterized by the fact of reasonable pluralism, demands from participants the giving of reasons that others who are differently disposed in matters of ideology can nonetheless accept. Public reason is a process meant to guide policy makers, but it is also an effective strategy for philosophical pedagogy, where students learn to construct reasons for their positions that their classmates with different viewpoints and commitments might nonetheless find themselves unable to reject.

Classes Taught

Graduate Courses Taught at Carleton

EPAF 6000: Ethical Concerns in Public Affairs, 2015-16, 2020-21, 2022-23, 2024-25

EPAF 6100: Public Reason 1, 2018

PHIL 4330/5350: Seminar in Political Philosophy: Distributive Justice and Basic Income 2024

PHIL 4100/5000 Topics in Philosophy: Health Justice, 2011, 2013, 2022

PHIL 4100/5000 Topics in Philosophy: Exploitation and Commodification, 2017, 2019, 2020,

PHIL 4100/5000 Topics in Philosophy: Justice and Equality, 2014

PHIL 4100/5000 Topics in Philosophy: Markets and Morals, 2014, 2015

PHIL 4100/5000 Advanced Bioethics: Research Ethics, 2012

Undergraduate Courses Taught at Carleton see also 4100 cross listed courses above

PHIL 3360 Philosophy, Public Policy, and Economics, 2023

PHIL 3340 Social and Political Philosophy: Justice, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2024

PHIL 2408 Bioethics, 2012, 2012, 2014, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020

PHIL 2020 Practical Philosophy, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2013, 2015x2, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

PHIL 2380 Environmental Ethics, 2010

PHIL 2101 History of Ethics, 2010, 2011

Undergraduate Courses Taught at the University of Toronto

PHL 490: Honours Research Seminar, 2010, 2009

PHL 489: Advanced Philosophy: Socrates Project Pro-Seminar, 2010, 2009

PHL 440: Clinical Bioethics, 2009, 2009

PHL 380: Global Bioethics, 2009, 2008, 2008

PHL 384: Ethics, Genetics and Reproduction, 2008

PHL 281: Bioethics, 2008, 2006

PHL 383: Ethics and Mental Health, 2007

PHL 267: Feminist Philosophy, 2010, 2007, 2006, 2005