Classes

TEaching at Harvard University

At Harvard, I have taught courses on a range of topics, including historiographies of American religion from the nineteenth century until the present, the history of American evangelicalism, case studies of religious-cultural diversity in the U.S., pedagogy in the Study of Religion, and the critical introduction to Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies. I’m a recipient of the Certificate of Distinction and Excellence in Teaching (from Harvard Office of Undergraduate Education) in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022, an award to recognize the best graduate teaching fellows.


The following are descriptions of the courses I have taught at Harvard.

BNI F23: Invention of the Family: Religious History of the Korean Diaspora (Instructor, Fall 2023)

Synopsis: This public-facing course is an historical overview of the religious aspect of the Korean Diaspora in North America from the 1880s to the present.

  • Home Institution: Boston Nehemiah Institute (BNI)

  • Level: public-facing course

  • Format: Hybrid

EMR 1020: Topics in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies (Teaching Fellow, Spring 2022 & Spring 2023)

Synopsis: This course looks to historical, theoretical, and cultural sources to understand Asian American and Pacific Islander visions for identity, justice, community, and coalition. We will consider in each case the complexities involved in navigating coloniality, racial formation, and particular temporal and local contexts. This course foregrounds issues of coloniality and ecology, anticolonial and antiracist solidarities, and formations of desire/ability.

  • Harvard College course (level: undergraduate)

  • Course Head: Eleanor Craig

REL 3004: Pedagogy in the Study of Religion (Course Organizer & Facilitator, Spring 2023)

Synopsis: This course is designed for PhD students in the Committee on the Study of Religion, and is open to students in related fields who teach courses pertaining to religion. The course aims to equip students with skills to be effective Teaching Fellows at Harvard and to develop their own approaches to pedagogy as independent instructors in the field of religion. Classes will be workshop-style and will cover various teaching methods, course design, and professional development topics. They will also provide a space to discuss day-to-day success stories and challenges in the classroom.

  • Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (level: graduate)


HDS 2187/REL 1497: Evangelicalism in America (Teaching Fellow, Fall 2022)

Synopsis: This course is an overview of American evangelicalism from the 1740s to the present. Beginning with the rise of transatlantic evangelicalism in the eighteenth century, we will explore the growing power of evangelicals after the American Revolution, the crisis caused by slavery, the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in the early twentieth century, the emergence of Pentecostalism, the controversies created by neo-evangelicalism in the 1940s, the Civil Rights Movement, the charismatic movement, and evangelicalism today. Throughout the course, we will focus on the historical development of evangelicalism and the relationship between evangelicals and American culture, with special attention to gender, race, and nationalism.

  • Harvard Divinity School’s Graduate Course (level: graduate)

  • Course Head: Catherine Brekus


GenED 1166: Pluralism: Case Studies in American Diversity (Teaching Fellow, Fall 2021)

Synopsis: Who do we mean when we say “we?” How does our society deal with religious, ethical, and cultural diversity? What challenges do we face as people of different communities encounter one another in cities and public institutions, schools and businesses, neighborhoods and families? This course explores, discusses, and analyzes the changing multi-cultural and multi-religious landscape of America with an eye to the growing Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh communities in the most recent period of post-1965 immigration. The course’s approach is through the study and in-class discussion of case-studies enabling you to enter into some of the controversies and dilemmas that confront us in our schools, universities, town councils, zoning boards, and places of work.

  • Harvard College’s General Education course (level: undergraduate and graduate)

  • Course Head: Diana Eck


HDS 2185: Narratives of American Religion: The Canon and Its Revisions (Teaching Fellow, Fall 2021)

Synopsis: What is the American religious historical “canon”? What stories have historians chosen to tell about America’s religious past? How has the canon been revised in recent decades as historians have challenged older understandings of who “makes” history?
This course examines narratives of American religious history from the nineteenth century until the present. Beginning with Robert Baird's Religion in America (1844), and concluding with Jon Butler, Grant Wacker and Randall Balmer’s Religion in American Life (2003), we will trace how scholars have imagined the whole "plot" of American religious history. We will focus particularly on how narratives have changed over time.

  • Harvard Divinity School’s Graduate Course (level: graduate)

  • Course Heads: Catherine Brekus and David Holland