Teaching undergraduate and graduate students remains among the most rewarding dimensions of my work at the University of New Mexico. UNM students bring a remarkable diversity of backgrounds and experiences into the classroom, and I strive to bring their resulting interests to bear in my teaching in courses on the sociology of religion, social theory, democratic organizing, and ethnographic research methods.  

Graduate level education involves both classroom teaching and intensive individual work on graduate students’ particular research projects. In 2005, my doctoral student Kathryn Hovey published her dissertation as Anarchy and Community in the New American West: Madrid, New Mexico, 1970-2000; I hope future books will follow from my recent and current doctoral students

In my undergraduate teaching, I strive to give my students the intellectual tools they need to think sociologically about specific topics, but at the same time to train them in the liberal arts and critical reflection necessary for informed participation in a democratic society. Pedagogically, I pursue these two broad goals by combining extensive in-class discussion with more standard lecture input, and by asking students to read and discuss conflicting viewpoints that report on current research and contemporary events. I believe the strength of this approach lies in getting students to think broadly about the world and their place in it as citizens in a democratic society. 

Recent & Current Courses:

  1. Soc398: Community Organizing – Theory and Practice

  2. Soc422: Sociology of Religion

  3. Soc500: Classical Social Theory

  4. Soc514: Contemporary Social Theory

  5. Soc532: Sociology of Religion (graduate seminar)

  6. Soc585: Ethnographic Research Methods 

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