"Hello, World!" and welcome to my academic home away from home.

Daniel John Steward

Office: #3072 Lincoln Hall
Phone: 217.333.1950
Email: djs@illinois.edu
Homepage: https://djs.web.illinois.edu/ (Here)

Office Hours: Wednesdays 2:30-4:00 PM (Fall 2024)*
(I hold these via Zoom and in person. Current students have the Zoom links in their Canvas sites, and are invited to drop-in at these times. Others should contact me via email to get the link.)

* I am also available by appointment, if we can coordinate one in spite of the swamp-in-a-tempest that is contemporary email.

I'm an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Sociology Department.

This (academic) year (2024-2025) I am teaching:

• Fall 2024:
  • Introduction to Sociology (SOC 100 ONL)—1st 8 weeks
  • Technology and Society (SOC 350)
  • Law and Society (SOC 479)
• Spring 2025:
  • Introduction to Sociology (SOC 100 ONL)—1st 8 weeks
  • Law and the Commons (SOC 396)
  • Law and Society (SOC 479)

There is an important trope in the world of online teaching. We distanced, digitized teachers often self-identify as "the guide on the side" rather than "the sage on the stage" (King 1993, Morrison 2014). This meme can appear trite, but it can also serve as a powerful pedagogical touchstone. I try to serve the learning of my students as a teacher/student who loves lifelong learning himself, a designer of virtual learning spaces that welcome students to take more control over their own educations, and a host of courses and cohorts exploring interesting sociological themes and literatures. But my overarching role is that of a guide, a guide through that field of tensions we call "society."

Revised: 2024.08.26