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Teaching Statement

Overview
I have substantial teaching experience across a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. I served as a long-term teaching assistant for Professor Scott Kastner’s course on U.S.-China relations (six semesters), where I gained deep familiarity with the history, diplomatic interactions, economic interdependencies, and strategic competition between the two nations. Additionally, I served as a teaching assistant for Political Philosophy (three semesters), Introduction to International Relations (one semester), and Environmental Politics (one semester, where I also delivered a guest lecture). At the graduate level, I was a TA for courses on Multilevel Analysis and Game Theory (one semester each).
I am particularly proficient in teaching courses on Chinese politics, Chinese foreign policy, international relations theory, global political economy, and game theory. I also have a solid grounding in Western political philosophy and quantitative methods. With adequate preparation, I am confident in my ability to teach a wide range of topics and adapt to the needs of the institution I serve. I consider myself an effective and engaging presenter, capable of delivering clear and informative lectures on diverse political science topics, even at short notice. My experience includes guest lectures and presentations for Professor Margaret Pearson (Chinese Politics), Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu (Political Radicalism: Comparing Communism and Fascism), and Dr. Conny Kazungu Sigel (Environmental Policy).
 

Teaching Philosophy
I encourage the students as much as I push them to realize their full potential. Over the years, I have learned to patiently listen to and help the students to overcome difficulties in their learning, to generously encourage the students when they make improvements, and to use more humorous language to make the classroom atmosphere more relaxed and livelier. I am glad that in more recent years, although the students still consider me to be quite demanding, they began to understand that I have the best of their interest at heart. As a student commented “…in terms of personality he's great as a person but a little hard as a TA, but still seems like he strives to make sure his students learn.”
In the classroom I encourage the students to develop critical thinking skills and engage with different opinions. I firmly believe that “civilization is a race between education and catastrophe”, especially for humanities and social sciences in our era, when our technology is developing at an exponential rate while our wisdom to understand and tame our newly acquired technologies seems to be lagging behind. My understanding is that to prepare the next generation for the challenges in such an era, it is vital that the educators focus on developing the critical thinking skills of the students, so that they become independent thinkers and understand the value of questioning, investigating, and evaluating evidence before any conclusion. To that end I encourage the students to freely express their opinions in the classroom, to respectfully listen to others’, and to think carefully whether they agree or disagree, and for what reasons. Meanwhile, I also provide feedback to the students, challenging their prospectives and helping them to more thoroughly develop and express their own thoughts.
 

Teaching Interest
I can offer to teach a variety of courses in three key areas: Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Research Methods at both undergraduate and graduate levels. I am also prepared to develop additional courses to satisfy the needs of your institution. Here is a list of courses I am prepared to teach:

 

Comparative Politics: Chinese domestic politics, Chinese political economy, Marxism and authoritarianism in China, Russian politics, historical roots of Chinese political institutions.

International Relations: U.S.-China Relations, Chinese foreign policy, international relations theory, international relations in East Asia.

Research Methods: formal theories, maximum likelihood analysis, multilevel analysis.

Teaching Experiences

Teaching Assistant
Responsibilities: leading weekly discussion sections, grading.
 

  • U.S.-China relations (undergraduate)

    • Multiple semesters

  • Introduction to International relations (undergraduate)

    • Fall 2017

  • Political theory/philosophy (undergraduate)

    • Fall 2018 and Spring 2023

  • Quantitative methods using STATA (undergraduate)

    • Fall 2016

  • Multilevel analysis (graduate)

    • Spring 2020

  • Formal theory (graduate)

    • Spring 2018

 

​Guest Instructor
Responsibilities: lecturing, grading, leading in-class discussions.

 

  • Political theory/philosophy (undergraduate)

    • Fall 2023

  • Global Environmental Politics (undergraduate)

    • Fall 2023​

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Teaching Evaluation
Most students consider me to be an effective and responsible teacher. I have uploaded a recent teaching evaluation report: 

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