In a world increasingly shaped by speed, technology, and artificial intelligence, history can sometimes appear distant from the concerns of the present. Yet I believe the study of the past remains essential because it teaches students how to ask better questions, evaluate evidence, understand change over time, and recognize the human experiences behind larger social and political transformations.
I approach teaching history as a process of inquiry rather than memorization. My goal is to help students think like historians: to analyze primary sources, evaluate competing interpretations, and construct arguments grounded in evidence. Whether teaching migration, religion, empire, or everyday life, I encourage students to see history not as a fixed body of facts, but as an ongoing conversation about how people have made meaning, built communities, and navigated change.
My teaching emphasizes discussion, close reading, and the relationship between local experiences and broader historical processes. Drawing on my research in migration and diaspora, I encourage students to consider how ordinary people experience displacement, preserve cultural memory, and negotiate identity across time and place.
I am especially interested in bringing public history, oral history, and community archives into the classroom. These methods allow students to engage directly with historical evidence while recognizing that history is produced not only in universities and archives, but also in families, neighborhoods, religious institutions, and everyday acts of memory.