Teaching

I love teaching: lecturing, tutorial discussion, supervision, all of it.

First, I love the content. Honestly, what can compete with political theory? All we talk about are fundamental and controversial ideas, such as what freedom means, whether democracy is a good form of government, what are human rights and do they really exist, and how to live a good life in a world with others. 

Second, I love to introduce students to the practice of close and careful reading. I tend to teach through “great books” – classics of political philosophy and the history of moral and political thought (such as Plato’s Republic, Montaigne’s Essays, Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, and Rawls’s A Theory of Justice). My goal is to slow reading and thinking down, often dwelling on a single book or two over the course of a semester. This way, students learn a valuable skill for university life and beyond: charitable interpretation and the willingness to open themselves up to an often very different point of view. 

I am proud to have received several teaching awards at The University of Sydney, as well as national and international teaching prizes and fellowships. Please see my CV for details. 

At The University of Sydney, I teach the following courses: GOVT2112, Introduction to Political Theory; PHIL3613, The Philosophy of Human Rights; and PHIL3673, Philosophy as a Way of Life.

I am available for supervision of honours and post-graduate students in Government and International Relations, and Philosophy at The University of Sydney.