Teaching

My teaching at MIT brings tools of political economy and economic sociology to bear on issues of public policy and planning. My teaching also emphasizes the ever-present normative and political dimensions of knowledge, policy and practice. In 2015 I won a departmental Teaching Award for “Faculty Contribution to Social Justice“.

Brief descriptions of courses that I have taught are provided below.

11.201 Gateway: Planning Action (Introduction to Urban Studies and Planning)

This course introduces incoming students in the Master in City Planning (MCP) program to the theory and history of urban planning. It provides an introduction to the major ideas and debates of “planning theory” as well as a condensed global history of the relationship between the rise of industrial capitalism and modern planning. The course combines the theoretical perspective with background readings on the development and practice of planning with challenging real-world cases to highlight several aspects of planning: the persistent dilemmas planners face, the power and limits of planning practice, the roles in which planners find themselves in communities around the globe, the multiple disciplines that define planning and inform the work of planners, and the political, ethical, and practical challenges that planners face as they try to be effective.

11.S944 The Institutions of Modern Capitalism and the Rise of Market Society

This course addresses fundamental questions that lie at the heart of the relationship between states, markets and institutions. Do markets constitute a morally fair and economically efficient means of societal organization? Why have market institutions and logics become so pervasive in modern society? This course focuses on the origins and evolution of the institutions of modern capitalism by analyzing the politics of markets and the rise of ‘market society.’ It interrogates the processes through which markets have become a legitimate institution of economic exchange that is increasingly pervasive across broad areas of social life. To do so the course will expose students to interdisciplinary theories of modern capitalism that highlight the political and moral dimensions of markets and the role these shaping the contemporary social order. It locates the current moment of neoliberalism and ‘high modernity’ in comparative and historical perspective by analyzing the politics of markets in both developing and industrialized worlds, eschewing this conventional analytic divide to illustrate how the dynamics of capitalist institutional change are inextricably intertwined. Themes will include colonialism and state formation; managerial and bureaucratic expertise; technology and industrialization; consumerism, credit and consumption; financial capitalism, the subprime mortgage crisis and sovereign debt crisis; and inequality and the ‘shared economy’. A relatively recent version course syllabus (2016) is available here.

11.S950 International Development Theory

This course is delivered a two-semester sequence. The fall semester course provides advanced graduate students with a foundation in the evolution of theories of international development, spanning disciplinary approaches in the political economy of development, development economics, law and development and the history of capitalism. The spring semester course builds on this foundation by focussing on a few select topics at the frontier of international development theory and policy.

11.THG Thesis Prep (Research Design and Methods)

The purpose of this course is to help students identify interesting and promising research questions and to learn techniques of research design and methodology that will allow them to structure their Masters thesis proposals and research. This course is particularly aimed at students who are interested in conducting international field research. The syllabus is available here.

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Management 234 & 875 – International Comparative Management

While at Wharton (2013-2016) I designed and taught an interdisciplinary course entitled International Comparative Management at the undergraduate and MBA levels. The courses used tools of comparative political economy, economic sociology and strategic management to analyze the institutional environments in which business, government, and society interact. The course was also taught in Spring 2013, Fall 2013 and Fall 2014 and ranked amongst the top 10% in Wharton. The syllabus is available here.

OTHER TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

During my time as a doctoral candidate at MIT (2007-2013) I was a graduate teaching assistant for a number of courses, as described below:

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Latin American Studies, Spring 2012
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Research Design and Methods, First Year Doctoral Seminar, Fall 2009

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Quantitative Reasoning, Spring 2009
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Microeconomics, Fall 2008