Michael Hames-Garcia

Ethnic Studies

mhamesg@uoregon.edu | 541-346-0905

Courses: ES 254, ES 301, ES 352, ES 440/540, ES 450/550

In my courses you will:

  • Make connections to lived experiences and real-world challenges.
  • Explore practical possibilities for changing the world.

I was invited into the Teaching Academy because:

  • I was a Fellow in the Teaching Difference, Inequality, Agency CAIT Group.

What ways are you working to make your teaching inclusive?

Students in my classes make many of their own choices about when assignments will be due, what to center their assignments on, and even which assignments will be required for them. For example, some students may opt to take a final exam rather than weekly quizzes in order to accommodate their own schedules and strengths.

What do you do in terms of professional engagement with the teaching and learning culture on campus or nationally?

I regularly meet with colleagues to discuss their instructional practices in order to learn new methods.

In what ways was your teaching in this course research-led—informed by research on how students learn and inflected by UO's research mission?

All of my classes include specific goals for learning, substantial small-group and paired discussion, collaborative activities, and student reflection. In ES 352, students conduct substantial research in groups to write a policy brief recommending a new criminal justice policy or a change to an existing one.

What’s your favorite color?

I've never understood favorite colors. Favorites (colors, movies, dog breeds, etc) simply don't make sense to me. I like all colors for different reasons. Context is everything for me. Why would I like the same song when I'm happy as when I'm depressed? Or the same color for a car as for shoes? Of course, when I was a child everyone talked about having favorite colors. I assumed that we were all supposed to choose one for some reason, and I didn't realize until I was an adult that other people actually had genuine favorites.