Teaching
Pedagogy
Good teachers are, above all else, good mentors. My commitment to teaching and mentorship has been recognized at the university level: at least thirteen students and two faculty nominated me for the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring at Duke University, which I won in the spring of 2024. One of the students who nominated me for the award wrote: “In all my time at Duke, never before nor since have I encountered a teacher quite like Caleb, precisely because he extended his role as a teacher to be a true mentor.”
Course Syllabi
These are syllabi for courses I have taught. You can download them by clicking the link above each course synopsis.
Environmental Ethics
In this course, we explore contemporary debates in environmental ethics and their practical manifestations. Course topics include biodiversity, conservation, ecological restoration, novel ecosystems, extinction and de-extinction, climate justice, ecofeminism, Indigenous environmental ethics, and the ethics of eating meat.
Philosophy of Biology
In this course, we explore philosophical issues surrounding several key concepts in evolutionary biology. Through class discussions, reading responses, team debates, and a research paper, we investigate philosophical aspects of the following: natural selection, development, inheritance, the scope and adequacy of evolutionary theory, biological function, what it means to be an organism, what it means to be a species, race, and feminist perspectives on evolutionary biology.
Writing 101:
Closing the Gender Gap in STEM
In this writing course, we read works by and about female scientists across disciplines—both the unsung heroes in the history of science as well as female pioneers of the STEM workforce today. We also read and discuss feminist perspectives on science, such as the gendered bias of biological models and evolutionary concepts. Finally, we read and discuss recent scientific literature on systemic inequities in STEM, as well as possible social and economic causes for these inequities.
Logic
This is a standard undergraduate logic syllabus. It covers formal and informal fallacies, syntax and semantics of propositional and predicate logic, transcription, natural deduction, and truth trees.
What My Students Are Saying
The following testimonials are from anonymous course evaluations.
Caleb was, hands down, the best instructor I’ve ever had in facilitating an inclusive and fun learning environment. After a single run-through of every person in the class’s name, he had them down. Just like that — I’ve never had an instructor who cared about making their students feel welcome to the extent that Caleb did. He made sure that nobody ever felt that their question was dumb or poorly formulated, and because of that the participation in the class was unmatched.
— Philosophy of Biology, Spring 2023
Caleb was there for his students, always checking in on us both with how we are doing in his class and in other aspects. The class environment he created was truly something unmatched. It was an experience I will think upon happily when remembering my freshman year due to the dynamic and friendships he cultivated with his teaching style, the skills I learned from his instruction, and the amount of care Caleb took in his teaching.
— Closing the Gender Gap in STEM, Spring 2023
I greatly advanced my abilities to write thoughtfully and concisely. Professor Hazelwood provided excellent feedback that went beyond singular writing assignments to improve my overall writing style. I also developed skills in analyzing historical texts and comparing philosophical perspectives. In our discussions, we often challenged and supported various positions on feminism, STEM, and workforce representation, which helped me to gain insight into my own views and learn how to best articulate them.
— Closing the Gender Gap in STEM, Spring 2023
Caleb was a phenomenal instructor in this course. He was extremely knowledgeable, personable, and clear in his instruction of the material. He made the course engaging and fun to take while teaching us difficult concepts in a very unambiguous way. Caleb always made sure that everyone in the class grasped the concepts before moving on; no student was left behind in his course. He was readily available to meet outside of the scheduled class time and encouraged all of his students to reach beyond the course material and apply our learning to our respective fields.
— Logic, Fall 2022
The overall learning environment was incredible, I felt extremely well supported by Caleb Hazelwood. We were encouraged to engage in class discussions, and our contributions were valued. The debate format was extremely fun and engaging as both debate participants and as viewers. The high amount of out of class opportunities to listen to relevant talks was awesome as well, and I appreciated our instructor letting us know about these opportunities.
— Philosophy of Biology, Spring 2023
Mr. Hazelwood was exceptional in making you learn a vast amount of knowledge without putting that stress of learning on you. His class is very well structured in which it makes you feel like working more.
— Philosophy of Biology, Summer 2022
Course Evaluations
The following graph summarizes my evaluations (mean scores on a scale of 0-5) from the last five courses I taught at Duke University. My complete course evaluations (dating back to 2018) are available upon request.
Caleb Hazelwood 