“Kris is amazing! Probably the most kind, empathetic, and open-minded professor that I have had at UW! He focuses on content and people are genuinely engaged.”
In my courses, I focus on training skills like data analysis, writing, presenting, group organizing, and research literacy. Many of them center on the relationship between (meta-)theory, data, and methods. Drawing on a year-long program in teaching and experience working with people with disabilities and drug abuse problems, I use scaffolded active learning sessions and authentic assessment that builds understanding through application, evaluation, and innovation. Commonly, undergraduate students find my courses “challenging but manageable” (see sample feedback below).
At Duke Kunshan University, I lead a lab on Pedagogical Research and Practice at the Institute for Global Higher Education and work closely with the Center for Teaching and Learning. Currently, I lead a project on identifying “world-class” learning and teaching practices for higher education. Furthermore, I’m developing a self-paced online module to help students improve their meta-cognition, i.e. learning habits and skills.
My undergraduate thesis students design and execute their own original research. Most of them employ a survey experiment and collect a sufficiently powered online sample (using e.g. Prolific). Others use observational data and causal inference.
Please feel free to email me or schedule a meeting if you have questions about my courses, Signature Work (thesis), or teaching innovation.
COURSES
Supervised Courses
Classical Sociological Theory
Introduction to Research Methods
Institutions, Groups, and Society
Social Psychology
Sociology of Morality and Politics
Short Courses
Learning for School, Science, and Life
Teaching Assistant
Criminology
Modern Sociological Theory
Sociology of Education
STUDENT FEEDBACK
“I enjoyed taking this course! The Professor made it fair and interesting for all! Overall, it was one of my favorite classes I have taken at the university!”
“The instructor is really encouraging and values students’ progress throughout the course. The instructor also cares a lot about the mental state of the students and is willing to adjust according to students’ needs or weaknesses identified in the class.”
“I want to express my gratitude for caring so much about your students, Kris! It was nice to hear you asking us how we feel in the beginning of every class, and it was also nice that you suggested your help if we need to talk to someone. Additionally, what I appreciate a lot is that you encouraged us to ask questions and even devoted separate time during the class for it. It is rare for professors to care so much about students actually understanding the material.”
“Kris is really a kind and knowledgeable professor. And he is also a cool friend to talk with. I indeed learned a lot from him in this course. One of the best instructors I have ever met at DKU!”
“I had heard mostly not great things about soc theory prior to taking it (mostly that it was dry and reading-intensive) but, this teacher did a great job at making the content more interesting and easy to follow.”
“Although I do wish this class would have been in person, since I have had this professor before. He still had the same amount of energy that he did in person, as he did online which was extremely helpful.”
“Kris has been one of my favorite teachers to date at UW Madison. I thought he did a really good job encouraging learning from within. He didn’t force ways of thinking upon us but rather presented us with materials to derive our own thoughts. He also encouraged critical thinking quite a bit which I really enjoyed. Loved him and the TA. This was a great class.”
“I really appreciate the reading critiques, minipublic, and experiential learning meetings. I learned a lot of skills about summarizing and critiquing long articles, and finding connections among articles when doing reading critiques and the minipublic. The experiential learning meetings helped me meet with many of my classmates and build connections and friendship, which really supported me throughout the class.”
“Kris is a great professor. He is understanding and helpful, and pushes students to do their best.”
“Kris is an amiable, accessible and empathetic professor. Through a range of activities, he makes students the key role in every class, which makes the course extremely engaging. He intends to push us think hard and enhance our group work ability under time pressure in class activities, he really cares about not making students feel stressful. He is always passionate and willing to help, even beyond the course content. I really enjoyed every fruitful and inspiring office hour session with him.”
“Kris was amazing with a focus on content, not simply rote memorization for exams.”
“The Minipublic is one of my favorite activities. Each step helps capture our own main points and develop them in a more organized and understandable manner. We absorb new information and suggestions and then condense them into the final recording. The process and outcome are both very rewarding. Repeated revisions definitely help with learning class contents and forming strategy to create presentation that is conclusive and has a clearer flow from studies to application.”
“Kris is an absolutely fantastic lecturer and professor who cares about his field in sociology and his students. Classical Theory can be a dull and difficult subject, but Kris made huge efforts to make the class engaging and useful for our learning moving forward in sociology.”
“I don’t feel too pressured about my grade in this course. This has caused me to become more interested in the course material. I do the readings more because I’m interested rather than for a grade.”
“I liked the minipublic activity the most, since it made me to integrate the knowledge that I learned in the course readings into real-life situation. It really helped me to understand the theories and gaps in the studies better, and apply those knowledge by suggesting policies.”
“I really enjoyed how this course was set up. This is one of the few courses where I actually read all of the assigned materials. I felt that the professor and TA did a great job at creating a learning space for social psych. I’d gladly take a course like this again. I also think other courses may want to try and reflect this style.”
“Really enjoyed how you taught this class – with a focus on improvement. I love how there were not exams but other measures of learning.”
“This was a really excellent course. I learned a ton, and appreciated your orientation and flexibility towards making content and assignments helpful, useful, and tailored. […] Often I find that mentions of marginalized figures in history feel sort of tokenizing or cursory, but the way that you strongly incorporated all voices […] felt genuine and was an incredibly rich learning opportunity.”
“I really appreciate the patience and support of the instructor. He is really approachable after class either in the office hours or by appointment. He never hesitates to care for the students.”
“I love the mini public and I haven’t had the chance in any other courses to have so many opportunities to speak in front of the class. The instructor created a really comfortable class atmosphere that I could freely express myself in class without feeling too nervous, and I exchanged a lot of great ideas with my classmates.”
“Kris is an excellent professor. His class in Week 1 where he talked about be aware of what we learn was really helpful and inspiring.”
“This was genuinely my favorite class I have taken at UW. Kris was so receptive to students and helpful in making sure we stayed engaged and also learned a TON!”
Kristinn Már Ársælsson 