Corporate disclosure is the language in which companies explain themselves to investors and to society. It determines which parts of corporate conduct become visible, comparable and therefore open to criticism. Whoever can read it can read companies, and teaching that ability is the core of what I do.
In my teaching, I strive to do two things: train students in a subject, and teach them to think for themselves.
To achieve the former, I make a subject learnable. I use self-explanatory slides, which still work when a student revisits them alone. A detailed plan at the start of term sets out what each session covers. I repeatedly state expectations to reduce the uncertainty for students around what is being asked of them. And I provide and discuss exam-realistic exercises in the lecture, with students working through them rather than watching me present solutions.
The latter is best exemplified by my research field, which is also part of my teaching. Sustainability reporting is genuinely contested: transparency is necessary, but reporting rules impose real costs on smaller firms; sustainability goals conflict with one another; and the more visible sustainability becomes, the greater the incentive to greenwash. I build those tensions into the lecture. We engage with relevant regulation, review evidence on its effectiveness, and work through real reports to discuss the gaps they reveal. Students should leave able to judge for themselves rather than holding a particular position.
Diversity in my teaching
I was born abroad and raised bilingual. Growing up, I was shaped by a culture that was not the dominant one. I therefore know what it is like to be perceived as not quite from here, and how long that persists. It makes me attentive to students who start from a similar place, and deliberate about showing them that a researcher or a teacher does not have to fit a single picture.
Diversity is also built into my teaching agenda. I set and supervise group projects on diversity-related questions in my sustainability courses, and I supervised a master’s thesis on women on boards and the firm characteristics associated with board gender composition. I keep training in it, most recently through a certified programme on gender and diversity in higher education, with a further certificate course planned.
A full list of the courses I have taught, with formats and years, is in my CV, along with evaluation results for my teaching at Bielefeld.