The five faculty members who earned tenure in 2012 tell us what makes their teaching tick. 

Palmar Álvarez-Blanco
associate professor of Spanish
“One common objective ties together my teaching, my research, and a good part of my service: the desire to make the Spanish language—and, more specifically, contemporary Spanish literature and culture—relevant to students’ lives. Although Spain is far away from Northfield geographically, I try to make its people, culture, customs, politics, history, and literature an everyday part of Carleton campus life, something vibrant and palpable that students can relate to in a direct way.”

Devashree Gupta
associate professor of political science
“I have made a concerted effort to encourage students to think of themselves not only as consumers of information, but as producers of knowledge—capable researchers in their own right who have interesting things to add to ongoing scholarly conversations.”

Pavel Kapinos
associate professor of economics
“The core emphasis in all my classes is to get students to think like modern economists. In my understanding, that means being aware of the basic facts—statistically summarized—of economic reality and being able to filter these facts through the prism of economic theories, while remembering that these models are simplifications of reality.”

Meera Sehgal
associate professor of sociology and anthropology, and of women’s and gender studies program
“As a feminist educator, I strive to help students understand and learn from the perspectives of people engaged in struggles for justice around the world. In an inescapably transnational and multicultural world, my pedagogical objective is to make students aware of themselves as global citizens and to craft democratic citizenship on the global level.”

Sarah Titus
associate professor of geology
“I set personal teaching goals each year. They add fresh aspects to each course and provide a clear focus for revising a course without requiring a complete overhaul. The goals are also good for students, since they are based on my perception of student learning needs and often involve new teaching materials designed to address those needs.”