Teaching
My teaching has been recognized with University of Pennsylvania's Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students and its Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students. During my years at the University of Pennsylvania, I've been a teaching assistant for courses in Modern Political Thought, Ancient Political Thought, The American Presidency, and Shakespeare and Political Ethics. I think of students and teachers the way I think of hikers pushing past the tree-line. We want to climb to get a view of the landscape, but we don't want to break our legs.
I bring a mix of daring and support to the classroom. Rather than playing the reading police, I focus class discussion on questions that have no right answer. What is power? What is the value of democracy? Do you agree with Machiavelli that rulers need to be feared? As students reveal diverging interpretations of the same event, concept, or text, I encourage them to challenge each other and me. We sometimes stumble or get lost along the way. But more often than not, we find our way above the tree-line.
To learn more, download my CV or contact me at tpattiz@sas.upenn.edu.