I am committed to quality teaching for undergraduate and graduate students and aim to engage students in learning through hands on activities. I have taught in a variety of different settings in China and in the United States. At Harvard, I was twice awarded a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching.

Currently, I regularly teach Introduction to Anthropology, lecture-based class that introduces students to the four fields of Anthropology.

I also teach “Feeding the World” a class that situates meeting the world’s food supply in an interdisciplinary framework.

I teach  Introduction to Paleoethnobotany, a graduate laboratory-based class that introduces students to the basic science behind the interpretation and analysis of ancient plant remains. This course is designed to provide a relatively comprehensive understanding of paleoethnobotany, in addition to hands-on experience working with plant remains. This course provides students with training in laboratory methods, the uses of macrobotanical data to reconstruct environment and subsistence, spatial versus temporal analysis, quantitative methods, and taxonomy.  Students in the class conduct an analysis of a macrobotanical or microbotanical assemblage of their own or one assigned to them and  produce a publishable quality report by the end of the semester. This course is offered every other year.

Teaching Experience

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,SAN DIEGO

ANAR/SIO 166: Environmental Archaeology

ANAR 146: Feeding the World

ANTH/SIO 275: Introduction to Paleoethnobotany. Graduate Lab Seminar.

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

ANTH 591: Feeding the World: The Ethnobiology of Farming Systems. Graduate Seminar. Spring 2016.

ANTH 101 Introduction to Anthropology. Undergraduate Course. Spring 2014, 2015

ANTH 576 Introduction to Paleoethnobotany. Graduate Lab Seminar. Spring 2015/ Fall 2016.

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD-NYU

Guest Lecturer. Public Health in the Ancient World. Graduate Seminar. Fall 2014

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Guest Lecturer, The Origins of the Food We Eat. Undergraduate and Graduate course. Fall 2012 and 2013

Teaching Fellow, The Biology of Plants, Undergraduate course. Spring 2012

Guest Lecturer, Plants and People: Introduction to Ethnobiology, Undergraduate course, Spring 2011, 2012

Head Teaching Fellow, Origins of the Food We Eat, Undergraduate and Graduate course, Spring 2010

Head Teaching Fellow, Introduction to Archaeology, Undergraduate Course, Spring 2010 (Harvard Derek Bok Center Award for Excellence in Teaching)

Head Teaching Fellow, “Introduction to Archaeology”, Undergraduate Course, Fall 2009 (Harvard Derek Bok Center Award for Excellence in Teaching)

SICHUAN UNIVERISTY                              

Instructor of Record, Environmental Archaeology and the Origins of Agriculture,Undergraduate and Graduate seminar, Fall 2010

Instructor of Record, Collapse: Climate and Civilization, Undergraduate course, Summer 2013

Instructor of Record, Feeding the World, Undergraduate course, Summer 2013