My approach to teaching is grounded in four areas which I believe are important to my students’ intellectual and analytical growth: the extensive use of short writing assignments (stemming from my experience with the Writing in the Disciplines program, I focus on the effective use of sources and revision/resubmission as key elements in the writing process); the personalization of politics (I employ my experiences from visiting more than 40 countries to evoke local and national political culture); the use of instructional technologies (all of my classes utilize interactive course resource management platforms that add to the learning environment, encourage and support substantive research, and help develop digital skills); and the use of the Socratic method (I challenge my students to reassess their notions of basic concepts such as 'religion', 'terrorism', 'race', etc.). My primary learning outcomes focus on developing critical thinking skills through written analysis, effective use of case studies, and in-class debates and conceptual analysis exercises. I strive to bring my research into the classroom whenever possible and tend to develop research questions with my own undergraduates in mind, often considering the question: "'Would my students want to read this?' At Farmingdale State College-SUNY, I have also developed my ability to use humor as a teaching tool, which I have found to be a highly effective method for engaging students who are less than enthusiastic about studying subjects that are not directly related to their majors (engineering, nursing, etc.). I bring a high level of energy and intellectual vigor to the classroom, and strive to make my course content as relevant as possible to my students particularly through annual updates of syllabi and case studies. My primary objective is to prepare my students for a lifetime of civic engagement, global interaction, and cross-cultural understanding which they can continually leverage regardless of their choice of career.