Teaching is a relationship.
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AI and Human-Centered Insight: Research Methods for a Changing World
Course Description:
This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the principles and practices of data-driven decision-making, blending anthropology and business perspectives. Students will explore how mixed-method research—combining qualitative and quantitative approaches—can generate original data to address real-world business challenges. Students will also engage hands-on with emerging technologies, including generative AI, that are actively transforming how industry and academic research are performed and executed.
Through a combination of lectures, case studies, and hands-on projects, students will learn foundational research methods and their applications in business contexts, such as product development, marketing strategy, organizational management, and mergers and acquisitions. The course emphasizes the importance of understanding human behavior, cultural context, and market trends to inform data collection and analysis.
Learning Outcomes: Students will design and conduct their own research studies, developing skills in:
Crafting research questions and hypotheses
Selecting appropriate methods (e.g., surveys, interviews, ethnography, statistical analysis)
Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data
Communicating insights effectively to stakeholders
Leveraging AI to inform research design, data collection, and analysis
Course Tags: #Anthropology, #Business
Teaching Philosophy
As a teacher, I approach the classroom as both a site of inquiry and a space for transformation. My background in anthropology and strategy allows me to bridge disciplines, helping students connect rigorous research methods with real-world application, whether they’re analyzing consumer behavior, workplace culture, or their own roles in emerging systems. I emphasize clarity without oversimplification, and care without condescension.
I believe deeply in the practicality of humanities education. I focus on connecting the seemingly abstract to opportunities for real impact in working lives and institutions. My goal is to help students ask better questions, the kind that shape how they see the world and their place in it. I teach research not just as a technical skill, but as a way of noticing, of interpreting, of finding meaning in noise. Whether we’re designing a survey, analyzing interview data, or exploring the ethical implications of generative AI, I want students to feel grounded, curious, and equipped.
My teaching style has evolved over the years in such a way that I talk less and listen more. As an anthropologist of work, I'm particularly attentive to students' concerns about post-graduation life. I've adjusted my classes to focus not just on content mastery, but on building durable skills, like presentation, idea translation, and strategic thinking, that prepare students to move fluidly between intellectual and professional worlds. Navigating a precarious professional world myself, I increasingly find empathy critical to building connections and content relevance with students situated in the daunting liminality of soon-to-be “on-the-market.”
I build my courses around applied learning, reflection, and intellectual generosity. I design assignments that stretch students to think across disciplines and communicate their insights to diverse audiences. I want them to leave my courses with tools they can actually use, not just in their careers, but in their capacity to engage with the world.
Above all, I believe that learning is relational. I aim to create a classroom culture built on respect, curiosity, and context, one where students feel seen, challenged, and inspired to bring their full selves into the work. This includes a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of my teaching. I strive to ensure that all students, regardless of background or trajectory, feel that their voices matter, their identities are respected, and their perspectives are integral to our shared learning.
Train and encourage critical thinking.
Facilitate an environment of intellectual creativity.
Equip students to find meaningful employment.
Course Designs
Perspectives on Food
How do cultures instill philosophies of what is good to eat, and how do culinary habits in turn engender cultures? How does eating, cooking, and sharing food weave the personal and professional relationships that animate everyday life? How can lumps of sugar turn the wheels of imperialism, or platters of sushi mourn a loss? What determines the taste of a local ale versus a mass-produced lager? What happens when the things we eat have a mind of their own?
This course presents a cross-cultural look at food, the creation and circulation of alimentary commodities, and how tastes are made and disseminated.
Culture & Consumption
A cross-cultural look at gift giving, the creation and circulation of commodities, and how tastes are made and disseminated. This course explores branded commodities, materialism as a factor in cultural change, global consumer cultures, and emerging local alternatives. By drawing on ethnographic and popular writings, documentaries and experiences, we’ll examine cultures of consumption from the perspective of consumers, certainly, but also from the various perspectives of farmers, marketers, chefs, and artisans. In doing so, we’ll tackle three elemental questions:
How do people relate to others through things?
How do the things we create in turn create our worlds?
How do the things we consume come to consume us?
Introduction to Anthropology
This course approaches anthropology as a diverse discipline, considering the fundamental questions and research methodologies of cultural anthropology, archaeology, medical anthropology, and environmental and historical anthropology. By drawing on four anthropological monographs, documentaries, and the experiences of anthropologists in the field, we will examine the insights anthropology can reveal, as well as the practical and ethical struggles it faces and generates. In doing so, we will create a foundation for understanding anthropology as a practice of approaching human variation in our everyday lives.