MICHAEL J. REESE

Teaching Portfolio

Home Page

MICHAEL J. REESE, JR., PH.D.
Associate Dean and Director
Johns Hopkins Center for Educational Resources
Instructor in Sociology

mreese@jhu.edu

Michael Reese is the Associate Dean & Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Educational Resources. He also has a joint appointment in Sociology as a lecturer. Dr. Reese previously worked as an Educational Technologist at Caliber Learning and Booz-Allen and Hamilton. He also consulted with the University of Maryland School of Nursing on the launch of their distance education program. He earned an Ph.D. in sociology at Johns Hopkins. His dissertation modeled how educational innovations diffused in higher education. He also earned an M.Ed. in educational technology from the University of Virginia and a B.S. in electrical engineering at Virginia Tech, where he was named the Paul E. Torgersen Leadership Scholar by his peers.

An Introduction to Urban Studies

Through an exploration of urban topics, this course will introduce students to data collection and analysis methods used in the social sciences. Students will discuss relevant research published by Johns Hopkins faculty in urban studies. Students will also gain an introduction to their adopted home, Baltimore, by collecting data and conducting field observations in different neighborhoods.

B’more Innovative: Studying Change in Charm City

Ideas that changed the world originated from Baltimore. In this course, we will discuss how ideas and innovations are born, spread, succeed and fail by examining case studies connected to Baltimore. In-class activities will provide insight into how entrepreneurs and activists promote change. Field trips will inform class conversations about technological and cultural innovations along with the societal and economic consequences of those changes. Questions the class will explore include: Why do new ideas or innovations succeed or fail? What are the consequences of innovations on society? What role do individuals and social groups play in diffusing new ideas?

Introduction to Sociology

The course will introduce students to the discipline of Sociology (the scientific study of human social life). Students will learn about the major theoretical approaches in the field as well as the diverse research methods used in sociological investigations. These tools will be applied to a wide variety of specific topics studied by sociologists, including family and work, as well as the dynamics of class, gender, race and ethnic inequalities within and across countries.