teaching

Teaching philosophy

My love for teaching was a primary motivation in pursuing a Ph.D. My teaching is grounded in two pillars: students learn best by practically applying concepts and methods in diverse ways, and students arrive with varying needs and interests that should be engaged as fully as possible. In practice, I plan lessons so that students engage with material differently from week to week––through class discussions, gallery walks, group and individual work, and student-led presentations––and I devote significant time to knowing students individually, including through generous office hours.

Teaching, Princeton University

• Introduction to Quantitative Social Science (POL 345), Assistant Instructor, Fall 2024. Led two weekly precept sections covering statistical inference, causal identification, and applied data analysis in R.
• Introduction to Comparative Politics (POL 230), Assistant Instructor, Spring 2023. Led precept sections on core comparative politics theory, regime types, state formation, and the political economy of development.
• Junior Independent Plenary, (POL 981), Assistant Instructor, Fall 2022. Led two weekly precept sections on research design, methods, and core theories from across all fields of political science. Worked with third-year undergraduates on the early stages of independent research, guiding literature reviews, research design, and argumentation through personalized feedback.

Full-time teaching, Laos

American Center, Vientiane, Full-time Instructor (Fulbright Fellowship), 2017–2019. Designed and taught courses in English, social studies, and professional skills for university students and young professionals, reaching approximately ten thousand students in support of U.S. public diplomacy. Played a central role in curriculum design, including developing syllabi, learning objectives, and assessment frameworks, and iterating course design based on student feedback.

Prepared to teach

Comparative politics, political economy of development, authoritarianism, politics of Southeast Asia, and research methods, at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

What students say

“Shourya was fantastic. Very helpful and supportive, made difficult content seem manageable and covered a lot of ground.”

"Shourya was extremely engaging, caring about each student's performance in the class, and took the time to review course materials in depth. The precepts made this course for me."

“LOVED my preceptor. He was way more helpful than any lecture. I went to his office hours and he would answer my questions at length. He was really really wonderful, and had a genuine care for all of his students.”