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Going beyond the classroom

As a medievalist, Reed's innovative teaching strategies make historical material present for his students. 

"I constantly reimagine classrooms and class time," says Reed. His course on Victorian medievalism is one example, inviting students to conceptualize a global phenomenon through a local lens. Using the city of Victoria as a case study, students of art and cultural history engaged with object and landscape research beyond the fixed schedule and place often associated with post-secondary learning.

Through a gift for drawing connections between past and present, Reed makes evident the continued importance of medieval studies in a rapidly changing world: “Medieval studies is essential in the context of the global right’s misrepresentation of medieval history, stories and iconography to advance dangerous, ahistorical agendas. In an increasingly (dis)connected technological present, many desire origin stories. Medieval studies can do this—globally.”

Students in his courses gain historical knowledge, but, perhaps more importantly, they leave with a sense of why that knowledge matters.

An authentic approach

As an out gay man, Reed brings his lived experience to his teaching. “My pedagogy is framed by authenticity. I bring my authentic self to the classroom,” he says.

This authenticity inspires students to do the same.

Previously recognized as a winner of the Gilian Sherwin Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching at ������Ƶ’s REACH Awards, Reed has taught at ������Ƶ since 2016. After ten years in ������Ƶ classrooms, he offers advice for new interdisciplinary instructors: “Create opportunities for students to reflect on and synthesize information individually and collaboratively—lecture should never be anyone’s default teaching method.