Teaching

Designing and teaching my own undergraduate course

In Summer 2026 I'll be designing and teaching my own undergraduate course at Stanford, PSYCH 131S: The developing mind; how humans learn, think, and communicate (Stanford ExploreCourses). The course is supported by a Graduate Community-Engaged Teaching (Grad CET) Fellowship from Stanford's Haas Center for Public Service and the Summer Session program (2025–2026).

Teaching Assistantships

  • Teaching assistant, Introduction to Developmental Psychology, Stanford University, Autumn 2025
  • Teaching assistant, Longitudinal Data Analysis in Social Science Research, Stanford University, Spring 2025
  • Teaching assistant, Introduction to Statistical Methods, Stanford University, Fall 2024
  • Head teaching assistant, Introduction to Social Psychology, Stanford University, Spring 2024
  • Teaching assistant, Introduction to Developmental Psychology, Stanford University, Autumn 2023
  • Teaching assistant, Introduction to Statistical Methods, Stanford University, Fall 2023
  • Course Assistant, language development course, Columbia University (TC), Fall 2021
  • Teaching assistant, Programming logic controller lab, University of Khartoum (UOFK), Spring 2018
  • Teaching assistant, Digital control systems, University of Khartoum (UOFK), Fall 2017

Teaching Philosophy

I came to teaching after training as an engineer in Khartoum and then as a psychologist at Stanford; and across those very different classrooms, the thing I keep returning to is that teaching is mostly listening. My job isn't to transmit a fixed body of knowledge; it's to take a student's question seriously enough that we can both learn something from following it.

In that sense, the teacher and the student are both learners: they grow together, and they learn from each other.

Mentorship

Working with undergraduate researchers is one of the most meaningful parts of my time at Stanford. Below are the students I've had the privilege of mentoring.

  • Summer Internship Graduate mentor - Stanford University
    • Juan Bello- Stanford IRISS internship program and Foothill College, Summer 2025 (Now a cognitive science major at UC San Diego)
    • Andrea Marie-Rose- The department of Psychology Summer Internship program, Summer 2025
    • Rachel Bong- The Symbolic systems department summer internship program, Summer 2025
    • Sadio Mohamed Abdi- The department of Psychology Summer Internship program, Summer 2024 (Now a research coordinator at North Dakota State University)
  • Psychology Honors thesis/Major research capstone project - Stanford University
    • Andrea Marie-Rose, Winter 2026-ongoing
    • Sadio Mohamed Abdi, Summer 2024-Spring 2025
  • Graduate mentor- Language and Cognition lab- Stanford University
    • Meesha Ryan- Research coordinator, Summer 2024-ongoing
    • Andrew Bui- Research assistant, Winter 2026-ongoing
    • Jowaan Park- Research assistant, Winter 2026-ongoing
    • Mia Lapiere- Research assistant, Winter 2026-ongoing
    • Toluwanimi Oke- Research assistant, Autumn 2025
    • Kai Vanderlip- Research assistant, Autumn 2025-ongoing
    • Princess Awambu- Research assistant, Autumn 2025
    • Irakli Kvariani- Research assistant, Autumn 2025-ongoing
    • Juan Bello- Research assistant, Summer-Fall 2025
    • Rachel Bong- Research assistant, Summer 2025-ongoing
    • Sadio Mohamed Abdi- Research assistant, Summer 2024-Spring 2025
    • Claire Lee- Research assistant, Winter 2024-Spring 2025
    • Nivedita Kripalani- Research assistant, Winter 2024-Spring 2025
    • Hoang D Nguyen- Research assistant, Fall-Winter 2024
  • Graduate mentor, Bing Honors College, Stanford University, Summer 2024

Guest lectures/talks

  • Lightning talk, Unmasking Development in the Shape Bias, Stanford Psychology Department Colloquium, Autumn 2025
  • Guest Speaker, What does language teach us about the human mind?, Stanford IRiSS Predoctoral program, Winter 2025
  • Guest speaker, Informal research talk on word learning, Staff developmental day, Bing Nursery School, Stanford University, Spring 2025
  • Guest lecturer, Cross-lagged panel models in longitudinal analysis, Psych 289/COMM 365, Stanford University, Spring 2025
  • Guest lecturer, Stats and Society: On the history of statistics, Psych 10, Introduction to statistical modeling, Stanford University, Fall 2024
  • Guest lecturer, Data visualization in R, Psych 10, Introduction to statistical modeling, Stanford University, Fall 2024
  • Guest lecturer, Cognitive science and language development, Psych 35/Symsys 200, Minds and Machines, Stanford University, Summer 2024