Teaching
As an educator, I teach students how to mobilize ethnographic methods and frameworks to critically understand the world around them. I have experience teaching at a large research-intensive university and a small liberal arts institution. In my classes, I employ a student-centered and reflexive pedagogical approach to center students’ perspectives, experiences, and agency while remaining responsive to their evolving needs. Students feel more engaged when they are asked to apply course materials to media they encounter in their everyday life and this activity encourages them to participate and learn from each other. As one student noted, “My favorite part of the class was the media presentations. I loved learning about my classmates’ perspectives and media worlds. It helped foster community in the classroom.”
My commitment to linking research and pedagogy was recognized with the Duke University Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, which reflects my investment in developing innovative, student-centered teaching practices. I assess student learning through multiple types of examination styles, including traditional written papers, group oral midterms, in-class media analysis, and grading certain assignments for completion (pass/fail) to empower students to explore and take risks in their analytical approaches. I have used this strategy in my current classes, where I have continued to hone an asset-based philosophy to my pedagogy.
“Media literacy is a huge thing I learned and being more critically and analytic about representation in all kinds of capacities. I gained a much more critical eye, and I’ve also been exposed to amazing theorists that I was previously unfamiliar with but now want to read more of!”
In planning my classes, I use a backward course design approach, centering my pedagogical methods and course structure around student learning. I strive to help my students leave the class with a final project that is useful to them, be it a paper that can be submitted for publication or a zine that delves into their extra-academic interests. Producing multi-media projects not only keeps students engaged but also helps them realize that they can make intellectual contributions as knowledge producers. As a student noted, “Professor Holloway's teaching was wonderful. She related class topics to current events and took a multimedia approach that incorporated material from many disciplines that accommodate multiple learning styles.”
My pedagogical mission is to help students train their analytical sensibilities, develop their interpretational skills, and critically engage with complex social, cultural, and historical contexts. By encouraging them to question the power dynamics embedded in visual and material culture, I aim to cultivate a classroom environment where students can think critically and empathetically. My hope is that any student who takes a class with me will come away with a heightened sensitivity to the politics of the visual and material world, as well as an awareness of how these politics shape our lived experiences. While conversations like these can be challenging, I firmly believe they are essential for fostering meaningful intellectual growth and creating opportunities for transformation in students' lives.
“Professor Holloway is very engaging. Her questions are always thoughtful and she cultivates a classroom where people are comfortable sharing their perspectives and arguments. She does a great job of energizing the class, I’ve never felt boredom here.”
I value the empirical and experiential knowledge that students bring with them to the classroom. I have witnessed students in my classes present insightful, critical, and, at times, deeply personal material in their oral presentations. Students have discussed impactful interactions with art installations and analyzed how the prison-industrial complex has affected their own families. I have also been fortunate to witness the growth of students’ media literacy in my “Representing Race” class, where we think expansively about how to ethically represent people’s lived experiences through audio-visual media. As one student noted in their course evaluation, “If I could switch out all of my classes for ones that are taught by Professor Holloway, I would do it in a heartbeat. She is one of the most encouraging, enthusiastic, and intelligent professors I have ever had the honor of taking a class with.” While I would encourage this student to branch out and work with a variety of professors across campus, I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm with which students greet me in the classroom.
“She was a great professor, I never felt any judgment or criticism when I or other people in class would share their thoughts, she was very encouraging and praised us with our work. She explained concepts very well and helped us to expand our thinking on topics that were unfamiliar.”