I view learning as an emergent and relational process that unfolds through the messy and nuanced interplay of place, space, and time. As a design educator, I believe transformation begins with what we practice and sow. This begins with uprooting pedagogies of control and punishment, moving toward practices that enable diversity of experience, identity, and thought, and cultivating pathways for co-creating and stewarding knowledge.
Teaching Philosophy
My pedagogical practice has unfolded across a constellation of learning spaces — from interdisciplinary design studios and experimental seminars to collaborative learning engagements with students, faculty, and staff. Within these environments, I have supported and taught courses spanning critical theory, design and technology, media studies, and the learning sciences, working alongside diverse communities of learners. These experiences continue to shape how I approach education: as a shared practice of experimentation, inquiry, and play, while cultivating the conditions for new ways of being and knowing to emerge.
Background and Experience
Human-Centered Design Studio: Service Design (DSGN 401-3)
Winter 2024, Northwestern University
As a design coach
Equity-Centered Design Research (DSGN 470-1)
Fall 2023, Northwestern University
Visual Design and Storytelling (DSGN 420)
Fall 2023, Northwestern University
Designing Your Life (DSGN 300)
Winter 2023 & Spring 2023, Northwestern University
Industrial Design Projects II (DSGN 380-2)
Spring 2022, Northwestern University
Designing Abolition Futures & Decarceral Worlds
Winter 2023, Northwestern University
Course Syllabus | Student Feedback
As an instructor
Liberatory Design, Educational Dreaming, Technological Justice
Fall 2022, Northwestern University
Course Syllabus | Student Feedback
Computing, Ethics, and Society (COMP_SCI 396)
Spring 2023, Northwestern University
As a teaching assistant
Transformative Computer Science Education (COMP_SCI 397, LRN_SCI 351/451)
Spring 2023, Northwestern University
Generative Methods (COMP_SCI 396)
Fall 2022, Northwestern University
Social AR/VR Studio (COMP_SCI 396)
Spring 2022, Northwestern University
Single-Variable Integral Calculus (MATH 220-2)
Winter 2022, Northwestern University
Teaching Observation Report
Creative Applications with Machine Learning (COMP_SCI 396)
Fall 2021, Northwestern University
Culture and Cognition (LRN_SCI 214)
Fall 2021, Northwestern University
Tangible Interaction Design and Learning (COMP_SCI & LRN_SCI 313/413)
Spring 2021, Northwestern University
Multi-Variable Differential Calculus (MATH 228-1)
Winter 2021 & Spring 2021/2022, Northwestern University
Single-Variable Differential Calculus (MATH 228-1)
Fall 2020/2021/2022, Northwestern University
Liberatory Research
Master of Design Futures, RMIT University
As a facilitator or guest lecturer
Imagining Possibilities: Researching what could be(come)
MA Digital Management, Hyper Island
Re-membering Time: Embodied explorations of grief and possibility with Pause and Effect
OCAD University
Non-Linear Design Strategy
MA Sustainability in Fashion and Creative Studies, AMD Fashion Academy in Berlin
My teaching philosophy finds expression through the practices I cultivate with learners. These pedagogical commitments shape how learning spaces are held, how inquiry unfolds, and how knowledge is stewarded together. The following principles reflect how this approach takes form in practice.
Teaching in Practice
-
I cultivate care-full learning environments where learners can build relationships, engage deeply with one another, and participate in critical inquiry and embodied reflection. In these spaces, learning becomes a collective practice: one that can unsettle hierarchies, question dominant narratives, and create room for voices and perspectives often pushed to the margins.
-
I guide learners to critically engage with their own contexts and histories, reflect on their positionalities in relation to social-political systems, and uproot how their work is shaped by dominant cultural norms that produce inequity and injustice. Through this lens, learners are invited to see their work as connected to broader systems, histories, and possible futures.
-
I create space for bold exploration, embracing failure and revision as essential components of growth and learning. Learners experiment with diverse forms of expression and media, while developing the capacity to adapt, iterate, and reimagine possibilities.
-
“This course challenged the way I want to spend my time here on earth. It rocked my world a little bit to be in space with others to think about how to live the most free versions of ourselves and explore ways in which we need to survive in this capitalistic society but also recognize that parts of us that deserve to be free and that deserve to be loved. I felt loved and held in this class.”
“From the very first class, we were challenged to reflect on our own identities, biases, values and beliefs and how we carried those into the spaces we learn in—how we shape those very spaces as a result. I feel like there's so much value in learning to be more aware of this, because it has an effect on how we learn and teach and engage with those around us whether we know it or not.”
“I really appreciated the humanity and honesty that you brought into the class. I felt like my rest was always honored and valued. I liked how much the syllabus changed throughout the course because it showed that the class was just as alive as us, and it was evolving as our needs were arising which I really appreciated.”
“I don't think any other class has ever allowed me to operate this way, to focus on myself and how I connect to the material. The discussions we had were also amazing. I was constantly finding myself thinking like, "wow I have felt that way before, I resonate so much with that" to things/experiences that my peers and Mayed have shared with the class. It has been a really rewarding experience to be a part of this course.”
“I liked the broad range of possibilities we had for the projects. Thinking about and creating them felt incredibly liberating, as I focused on personal projects and was able to engage in deep reflection and introspection.”
“It was really eye-opening, and exposed me to a lot of different ideas, world views, theories, and myriad experiences that I'd never had the time or the proper resources to delve into myself. I think it would be a really valuable course for more NU students to take, and especially when it comes to any type of technological design.”