Teaching

My goal as a teacher is to draw students into the excitement and puzzle of politics and development, and I provide my students with the theoretical and methodological tools to pursue their interests. I look forward to teaching comparative politics and policymaking, public policy and development, environmental politics and policy, and research methods to undergraduate and graduate students.

I would greatly enjoy mentoring students in undergraduate and doctoral theses, advising community-outreach groups, and involving students in my own applied field research. During 18 months of fieldwork in Brazil and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, I trained undergraduate and graduate students in research design, interview and survey methodology, and experimental methods. I will enjoy including students in my research and supporting my advisees in their own fieldwork.

I would like to offer workshops that go into more detail about collecting data in the field and managing a research project. These would teach the practical side of making connections in foreign countries; recruiting, training, and managing a survey team; survey design and coding for survey software; and designing interview guides, recruiting subjects for interviews, and recording qualitative information.

Courses

Specific examples of courses that I would enjoy teaching include:

Comparative Politics

Introduction to Comparative Politics
Latin American politics and society
Identity and ethnic politics in developing countries
Distributive politics and accountability
Public goods provision in developing countries
Politics and collective action

Environmental and Public Policy

Political economy of development policy
Comparative policy making processes
Politics, society, and the environment in developing countries
Sustainable development
Politics of climate change and adaptation
Environmental institutions and common pool resource management

Methods

Research design and methods for undergraduate students
Core methods sequence for graduate students
Impact evaluation and policy analysis
Statistical methods and regression analysis in social science
Advanced causal inference and experimental methods
Applied field research: interview and survey methodology and practice

Teaching Evaluations

I received high evaluations as a teaching assistant for undergraduate research methods and American politics at Columbia and the master’s methods sequence at UCSD’s School of Global Policy & Strategy. Full teaching evaluations from Columbia can be found here: Cooperman TA Evaluations.

Scope and Methods, undergraduate, Fall 2014: 4.83 of 5
Introduction to American Politics, undergraduate, Spring 2015: 4.61 of 5
Scope and Methods, undergraduate, Fall 2015: 5.47 of 6
Scope and Methods, undergraduate, Spring 2018: 4.5 of 5

Scope and Methods at Columbia (Spring 2018; Fall 2015; Fall 2014)

“Alicia is amazing. She visible [sic] loves the material she teaches, and is somehow able to present complex ideas in such a clear and succinct way, so as to make them seem simple. She is open to student questions, is very approachable, and seems to enjoy working with students rather than just teaching them. Alicia is on [sic] of the most committed TAs I have had; she always grades assignments on time and takes care to write comments that convey how students can improve their individual efforts. I felt so lucky to have her for support in the class, as the material could often get tricky. She made using R fun!”

“Alicia is the best TA I ever had at Columbia, period. She knows the subject matter and she made herself available during office hours and during section to explain the course material. She was extremely helpful in teaching us to use R.”

“Alicia was amazing. She guided me with my fears and offered me constructive criticism to help me better my work in the class. If she was the same with others as she was with me, I would expect she will go far as an academic. She knows how to connect with and listen to students, all while maintaining her role as teacher and instructor. She is an effective leader in the classroom. Combine that with her expertise and you have a prime condition for learning.”

“Alicia was an effective and helpful TA. The sections were very instructive and helped to clarify for me many of the more complex statistical and methodological questions we had to confront in our readings and especially in the assignments.”

“Alicia was a fantastic TA. She was great at explaining concepts, and when we expressed confusion, she worked hard to find new ways to present the information and explain. She’s tough in the best way, and willing to engage, and understanding of our circumstances as students. I hope she becomes a professor, because I would love to take courses taught by her.”

“Alicia was an excellent TA. During the discussion sections, she worked to make the material clear and the assignments coherent. She made the class feel very comfortable to ask any questions and reminded us of how exciting the field of research can be. Alicia was very approachable and was always available to meet to discuss any difficulties I was having with the problem sets.”

Introduction to American Politics at Columbia (Spring 2015):

“Alicia was a fantastic TA who ran her classes in a very organized way. I also liked how she was able to stimulate discussion.”

“Alicia was great. Very willing to meet with me and led really interesting discussion sections.”

“Alicia Dailey Cooperman is an excellant [sic] TA. She helped me understand the content of the course better by thoroughly answering questions and providing additional input when needed.”