Teaching

 

My teaching focuses on the intersection of Latin America and the Caribbean, International Development, and the Environment through a critical  anthropological lens. I currently teach courses at both the master’s and undergraduate level on International Development and the Politics of Environmental Conservation. 

I have taught at the doctoral, masters, and undergraduate levels, and continue to teach and collaborate with the Faculté d’Ethnologie at the Université d’Etat d’Haiti in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Teaching Philosophy

Dr Freeman’s courses revolve around a set of debates that students entertain week after week. For a course on development, this often means reading the arguments from multiple practitioners or theorists to understand the terms and assumptions of each. For a course on conservation it may revolve around a particular policy and the perspectives on that policy held by different disciplines or philosophies. 

A large part of his teaching has also been experiential. I have lead a practicum course to Costa Rica for 5 years, bringing students from AU together with students from the Norweigian University for Life SCiences (NMBU) and the University for Peace (Costa Rica) to examine the social and environmental impacts of pineapple plantations in southwest Costa Rica. Students have worked with small holding farmers to develop research questions that have examined the industry or alternative agroecological practices that hold promise for farmers. 

He is particularly interested in critiques that existing forms of grading may be evaluating students not on what they learned in my class, but what they have learned previously. For that reason, I have used labor based grading, and grading specifications. He has worked with classes based on each of these grading systems and am continually seeking forms of assessment that encourage students to learn and explore outside of a system that punishes some types of learners and rewards others. 

Courses

Graduate

  • International Development. 2015-2022. American University.

  • Politics of Conservation. 2015-2022. American University.

  • Conservation, Sustainability, and Development. 2015. Georgetown University.

  • Qualitative Field Research Methods. 2015. Georgetown University.

  • Antwopoloji Anviwonman (Environmental Anthropology). 2015. Université d’Etat d’Haiti.

  • Micropolitics of Development and Social Analysis. 2014. American University.

  • Globalization, Institutions, and Bureaucracy. 2014. The George Washington University.

  • Methods Seminar in Development Anthropology. 2014. The George Washington University.

Undergraduate

  • Global Inequality and Development. 2015-2022. American University.

  • Politics of Conservation. 2015-2019. American University.

  • Marginalization and Conservation. 2015. American University.

  • Methods in Sociocultural Anthropology. 2015. The George Washington University.

  • Introduction to Latin American Studies. 2014. The University of Maryland.

  • Development Anthropology. 2013. The George Washington University.

  • Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies. 2011 (Teaching Assistant). Columbia University.