Teaching

Forming readers who can hold historical rigor, embodied experience, and ethical responsibility together.

I teach biblical studies with close attention to history, interpretation, and lived experience. My courses invite students to engage Scripture critically and ethically, especially where biblical texts intersect with embodiment, power, suffering, and communal life. I have taught undergraduates, graduate students, and ministers, and I design learning experiences that are rigorous, accessible, and responsive to the questions students bring from the classroom, the church, and the wider world.

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching grows out of my work on the New Testament, empire, embodiment, and disability. I help students see how power and social location shape both biblical texts and the interpretations that continue to form communities, theologies, and public life.

In introductory courses, students practice close reading, historical and cultural analysis, and constructive questioning so they can recognize that interpretation is never neutral. In advanced work, we stay with fewer methods more deeply, asking not only what readings are plausible but which are ethically responsible.

My classrooms are collaborative and discussion‑centered. I blend short lectures with structured small‑group work and guided analysis of texts, scholarship, and artistic or popular retellings, so students can trace how interpretation circulates beyond the academy. Across undergraduate, seminary, and ministerial settings, I invite students to bring their lived experience and faith commitments into conversation with critical inquiry while maintaining clear expectations for intellectual rigor.

I aim to cultivate classrooms where students listen generously, engage critically, and speak with integrity, leaving with sharpened interpretive skills and a deeper sense of responsibility for how their readings of Scripture shape the communities they serve.

Teaching_Philosophy

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

Understanding Religion: Texts and Ideas — The Bible (Texas Christian University, Fall 2022–present).
Understanding Religion: Society and Culture — Christian Ethics (Texas Christian University, Fall 2025).

Graduate and Ministerial

Matthew, Disability, and Empire (Saint Paul School of Theology, Graduate Program, Fall 2024).
The Gospels (Saint Paul School of Theology, Course of Study Program for lay ministers, Fall 2022–present).

Guest Lectures and Church Teaching

Scripture in Context: The Roman Empire and the New Testament, Divine Life Church (Bethany, OK).
Seven Events that Shaped the New Testament World, University Christian Church (Fort Worth, TX).
Guest lectures on Revelation at Oklahoma City University and First Christian Church (Fort Worth, TX).

Teaching Interests and Courses I Develop

Introduction to the Bible
New Testament / The Gospels
Paul and Early Christianity
New Testament and Empire
New Testament, Disability, and Embodiment
Women and Gender in Scripture
Bible, Public Life, and Social Power

Pedagogical Development

Graduate Student Pedagogy Certificate, Koehler Center for Instruction and Innovation, Texas Christian University.
“Preparing to Teach Online,” Koehler Center for Instruction and Innovation, Texas Christian University.
Wabash Teaching Colloquia, Brite Divinity School.
Wabash Teaching Seminar for Doctoral Students, San Francisco, CA.