Emily Hawk, Ph.D.

Mutual trust anchors my classroom. I begin by trusting students to chase their curiosities and to help shape the conversation; in turn, I earn their trust by making every concept legible and every primary source accessible, no matter their prior preparation. Each week we build an active archive together—grant files, dance footage, city-planning maps, oral histories—so students practice asking open-ended questions, weighing evidence, and writing with conviction. Before every meeting they submit two concise questions on the readings; their queries steer our small-group source labs and model the craft of historical inquiry. By semester’s end they can trace an idea from studio floor to city hall and articulate why it matters today. Course evaluations praise this approach as “inclusive,” “encouraging,” and “like a team,” and Columbia’s provost named me a finalist for the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching on its strength.