MSC 05 3080
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Physical Location:
Hokona-Zuni
401
Phone: (505) 277-2501
Fax: (505) 277-8805
rlwood@unm.edu
Teaching undergraduate and graduate students remains among the most rewarding dimensions of my work at the University of New Mexico. UNM students bring a remarkable diversity of backgrounds and experiences into the classroom, and I strive to bring their resulting interests to bear in my teaching .
In my undergraduate teaching, I strive to give my students the tools they need to think sociologically about the world, but at the same time to form them in the liberal arts and critical reflection necessary for informed participation in a democratic society. Pedagogically, I strive to engage my students by combining extensive in-class discussion with more standard lecture input, and by asking students to read and discuss conflicting viewpoints that report on current research and contemporary events. I believe the strength of this approach lies in getting students to think broadly about the world and their place in it as citizens in a democratic society.
My involvement in graduate education includes both classroom teaching and intensive work on graduate students’ individual research projects, usually focused on some aspect of the cultural and institutional underpinnings of democracy. The journey to a PhD in Sociology involves becoming a far more sophisticated consumer of others’ research by showing your mastery of particular areas of sociology – and then becoming a producer of new knowledge and insight about society. That journey may lead work as a professor, a college-level teacher, an applied researcher, or a more thoughtful and dynamic activist. My doctoral students publish academic books and articles, teach extensively, and engage in important activism and public sociological work.