Where do you get your educational passion from?
''My passion for teaching is closely linked to the lessons I learnt in Latin America. My travels in the region and my experiences with the people there, with their different languages, customs and worldviews, have profoundly changed my perspective on what we do at the university and how we contribute to the development of young people. I have come to focus more on the group as a whole and on what is needed for us to grow together. I enjoy the many opportunities that university education offers to let students experience the power of learning and of questioning their own knowledge. It is a delight to take them on a journey through unfamiliar histories and to explore together what significance these might have for our view of ourselves and our relationships with others. What’s more, I always take great pleasure whenever we succeed in transforming the lecture hall into a place where we can develop, have fun and, together, realise that asking questions has become second nature.''
What teaching moment has always stayed with you?
''The first thing that springs to mind is the lectures I attended as a first-year History student. The lecturers’ knowledge and their ability to bring history to life as storytellers strengthened my love for the subject. Yet, when I give the question more thought, this is not the teaching experience that has shaped me most as a lecturer.
That realisation only came many years later, when I watched the film The Couple in the Cage: Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West (1992–1993) with a group of students. This film documents the activist art project by Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez-Peña, who posed as members of a previously undiscovered indigenous tribe. The film made a deep impression on the students. One of them, who was of Indigenous descent, was visibly moved and wept at the sorrow that colonialism has left in its wake for so many generations.
That moment made me realise that the colonial history I was researching is more than just a story about the past. It set in motion a process of self-reflection that is still ongoing and continues to shape the way I think about my role as a teacher in a world full of inequality and injustice.''
What do you hope to pass on to students?
''In my teaching, I invite students to view the world from different perspectives. History looks different to a Mexica in sixteenth-century Tenochtitlan, a Creole or mestizo inhabitant of eighteenth-century Lima, or a Black person enslaved in the Caribbean. More recent experiences of unequal global integration and capitalist expansion have also given rise to ideas and theories that not only help us understand the region, but also challenge our own assumptions. That is why I try to encourage students to reflect on the significance of concepts such as creolisation, the pluriverse and buen vivir (the good life) for the way they view both the past and the present.
In addition, I am increasingly focusing on the skills students need to understand their place within complex social and political systems. What does it mean when learning is viewed primarily as individual preparation for working life? How can solidarity and collaboration actually make learning more accessible, enjoyable and meaningful? And how can critical thinking and deconstruction help shape alternative futures? By discussing these questions with students, I hope they will realise that there is more than one way forward, and that learning to cope effectively with change and a little chaos are truly indispensable skills.''
What are you proud of as a lecturer?
''I am proud of many things, but I am most proud when I see how students develop: how they overcome their hesitation to ask questions, become enthusiastic about new discoveries, put forward arguments as to why my argument does not yet take sufficient account of power structures in language or practices, help each other to grow by giving feedback and sharing notes, and show their commitment to the university and the wider world. Their curiosity, creativity and appreciation remind me time and again why I am a lecturer. I draw motivation from the appreciation students show for my teaching and for me as a person.''
What would you like to try out again in your teaching?
''I would like to work with students as a group – comprising 30 or 40 students, including myself – to write a full-length article over a period of time. This would form part of the activities we develop in the lecture hall. I’ve already experimented with this briefly recently and really enjoyed the dynamic that emerged when students started working on an online document and could see on the screen at the front of the lecture hall how they were enhancing each other’s creativity. There was room for humour, discussions about how to structure a good introduction, and how different perspectives can be brought together. Precisely at a time when generative AI is having such a strong influence on the dynamics of writing assignments, this may well be a way to hold on to a form of writing education that brings content and practice together in an interactive way.''