2024 Society of Ethnobiology Mentor Award
2023 Purdue University Anthropology Department Graduate Mentoring Award
2023 Purdue University Teaching Leadership Award
2021 Purdue University College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher
2019-20 Teaching for Tomorrow Fellow, Purdue University
2019 Purdue Anthropology Department Excellence in Teaching Award
Unedited Student Feedback:
“He is very welcoming and creates a inclusive environment to learn in, he puts a focus on genuinely learning and interacting with the material to benefit our lives and careers, he is very accessible and is quick to answer questions, you can tell he sincerely cares about his students’ wellbeing and really wants us to succeed, he includes relevant and current information in lectures, he structures the class for students to do well and works with students when there is a concern or question. ”
“I loved the breadth of the material covered. I liked that we learned about the intersection of food with culture, race, sex, class, economics, power, law, and many other topics. Also, the instructor gave some of the most entertaining and interesting lectures I have had in my four years as a student. Overall, I loved this class.”
“I appreciated the emphasis on different aspects of qualitative/ethnographic methodology (GIS, Interviewing, participant obs, etc). I also appreciated the ways in which class time was used to sharpen our own research projects, and get feedback from the class. Further, I enjoyed that Dr. Flachs was flexible on some of the course content to be able to respond to what would be useful to us.”
“Dr. Flachs did an amazing job leading our writing group this year. He provided constructive feedback to my writings and I appreciate his efforts to address additional topics on professional development. We often discussed different graduate concerns about how to write journal articles or deal with feedback from journals and work through edits. He also talked about how to successfully attend a conference and make the most of that experience and presenting your research. I really enjoyed the group and think it encouraged me to write and work on my dissertation-when sometimes this can be a daunting task.”
At Purdue University, I teach classes including introductory large lectures, topical courses in environmental anthropology and agrarian studies, and methodological seminars. At any level, these courses involve iterative writing, reflexive assignments, and hands-on work to apply the themes of the class to students’ lives and career goals.
Courses Taught:
Introduction to Anthropology (sample syllabus)
Food, Culture, and Power (sample syllabus)
Ethnographic Research Methods (sample syllabus)
Public Engagement (sample syllabus)
Ethnographic Writing
Environmental Anthropology
Ethnobiology
Political Ecology
As an instructor at every level, my classes:
(1) provide students with a broad understanding of how anthropologists address grand global challenges;
(2) challenges students to build critical thinking skills by interrogating the evidence that underlies discourse around fundamental anthropological topics like race, gender, environmental relationships, and global change;
(3) create space where students use anthropological methods through engaged coursework and mini-projects that reinforce class themes; and
(4) improve students’ written communication through iterative writing assignments.
As a first generation college student, an alumnus of the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers, and having taught students from such a range of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and university preparedness, I am especially committed to helping students realize that their personal experiences give them unique and valuable perspectives for social science classes.