Teaching
Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information.
— Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, p. 79 (50th Anniversary Editions, Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition, 2018)
My teaching experience covers the academic fields of Tibetan/Bhutanese Studies and Religious Studies/Buddhist Studies at the Universität Hamburg (2012–14) and the University of British Columbia (2018–2022). Moreover, I have been actively engaged in curriculum development and innovative and inclusive teaching approaches, for example, community-engaged and experiential learning and the implementation of inclusive exam formats. This includes collaborations with Buddhist and Himalayan communities, museums, and archives. But aspects of mindfulness and meditation techniques and creative elements from music and art are also a part of my teaching and classroom experience!
The core of my teaching approach is a historically philologically well-grounded education that is also interdisciplinary. I always strive to strike a good balance between language, content, and methodology/theory.
I have taught courses covering Tibetan language and literature, theories and methods in Tibetan studies, Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan material book culture, Buddhist ethics, and the globalization of Buddhism. Moreover, I address critical topics in my academic disciplines related to colonialism, indigeneity, and racism. For an example of community-engaged teaching, see my think piece, “More ‘inter-being’ less ‘instant gratification’: Integrating climate crisis content into an introductory class about Tibetan Buddhism at UBC.”