Teaching Philosophy:

My teaching philosophy is informed by radical pedagogy and working with diverse university populations. I see the classroom as a unique space where people can collectively raise awareness about taken for granted elements of culture and society, and gain tools to move beyond boundaries, as well as to imagine and practice alternatives. I teach highly interactive and interdisciplinary courses that engage students in both critical and creative exploration. My goal is to help students wrangle with course concepts in socially relevant ways and to apply their learning to understanding, questioning, and transforming their lives at personal and societal scales.

Experience:

I began teaching in higher education in 1998. Since then, I've taught a wide range of courses at four institutions of higher education, including the University of New Mexico, University of Washington, Portland State University, and University of Colorado at Denver's International College of Beijing.

Recent Awards:
•    Outstanding New Teacher of the Year, 2012. University of New Mexico.

Sample Courses:
Culture, Sustainability, and Change: Ecoculture (C&J 511, formerly 512) – a graduate course that examines the cultural and communicative ways humanity informs, shapes, and shifts relations with “the environment.” For photos one student took of Fall 2008 seminar's 2-day fieldstudy in northern New Mexico, go here. The seminar culminates in public gallery-style interactive creative and research presentations.

Critical and Cultural Studies (C&J 506) – a graduate methodology course at the University of New Mexico. Students present their final projects in a public colloquium 2007, 2009.

Culture, Borderlands, and Change: Places and Spaces (C&J 514, formerly 512) - a graduate fieldstudy course focused on spaces as material-symbolic constructions and issues of cultural-spatial cooption, resistance, struggle, and transformation. For photos one student took at fieldstudy sites in 2009, go here.

EcoCultural Communication (C&J 313, formerly 413) – an undergraduate course in which we explore local and global humanature relations as both actively socially constructed and deeply materially experienced.

Lobo Gardens (Sustainability Studies 402) – an academically grounded experiential learning course engaged in creating longterm community gardens on and off campus. See the Lobo Gardens website.

Language, Thought, and Behavior (C&J 318) - an undergraduate course focused on ways communication reflects, constitutes, and transforms perception and practice at a cultural scale.

Intercultural Communication (C&J 314) - an undergrduate course dedicated to heightening senstivity to, and understanding of, cultural difference, and to fruitful intercultural outcomes.

Introduction to Communication (C&J 101) – the department's introductory course for Communication majors. 100-students, 12 undergraduate peer facilitators, and one graduate TA.

Sample Publications & Presentations:
•     Milstein, T. (in press). Survive, critique, and create: Guiding radical pedagogy and critical public scholarship with the discursive guideposts of ecopedagogy. Green Theory & Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy.
•     Milstein, T. (in press). Greening the Communication discipline. In R. Kahn & A. J. Nocella II (Eds.), Greening the academy: The liberal arts in an age of ecopedagogy. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
•     Sustainability in Academia (5-minute excerpt). Featured in public radio series on teaching and learning sustainability. Aired on New Mexico NPR-affiliate KUNM 89.9 during All Things Considered. Albuquerque, NM. March 29, 30, and 31, 2010.
•     Milstein, T. (2007). Learning in the field: Engaging students via experience and application. Ecologue, Fall, 2-4.  
•     Milstein, T. (2004, November). The impact of the professional development seminar series on doctoral education: Incorporating findings from the national re-envisioning the Ph.D. project into doctoral education in communication in the 21st Century. National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.
•     Milstein, T. (2001, November). Turning radical: Seeking balance in graduate education. National Communication Association, Atlanta, GA.