About me
With a background working in multinational corporates, I always had a strong passion for academia. I joined Florida State University (FSU) to obtain my master degree in integrated marketing communications where I started my academic career as an associate lecturer in public speaking and public relations. Afterwards, I went to Dubai and I was hired to teach business courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students in Manipal University in Dubai and in Wrexham Glyndwr University in Dubai.
Using digital platforms is a key part of my teaching philosophy as this has a positive impact on students’ interaction with the course material and with each other. Throughout my teaching experience in Dubai, I further developed my teaching philosophy by increasing in-class activities, projects, and case studies that allows students to apply the theories that they learned in a practical framework. Lastly, I am further enriching my higher education experience by teaching graduate and undergraduate students at London South Bank (LSBU) University. At LSBU, I taught Multiple courses such as product and brand management, strategic marketing, principles of marketing, consumer behaviour, and digital marketing. Currently, I am a lecture in digital marketing strategy at the University of Westminster.
Teaching
My modules are driven by project-based learning that reflect on real brands and their current marketing strategies. I instruct students to use critical thinking that involve steps beginning with research and setting objectives and followed by analysis, and finally suggestions and conclusions.
While paying attention to theories, my classrooms tend to focus on teaching students soft and hard skills that they will use in their marketing careers. For instance, I include verbal communication activities. Additionally, I always ask students to use tools such as social media platforms, Ms Excel, database websites, etc. In fact, research is an integral part of my modules. For instance, I ask students to research the assigned brand’s target consumers and their shopping habits. I believe that familiarizing students with such skills is not only essential to marketing, but also important for their employability.
Lastly, I intend to introduce gamification as it has a high rate of engagement. This can be done by using applications and uploading a generous number of questions in which students can receive immediate feedback. Also, it can be encouraging to announce a prize or bonus points for the highest scores or the highest number of answered questions.
I strongly believe in the importance of public speaking across all industries! I began my academic career by teaching public speaking and PR to undergraduate students at Florida State University. In fact, I took as course "teaching oral communication." The learning from this course encouraged me to increase students' formal presentation and public speaking skills through various practices and feedback.
Research
My research background is related to social responsibility and consumer behaviors. Since the marketing and communication departments in any corporate receive a lot of attention and large budgets, I dedicated my research efforts to identify various sustainable marketing strategies that will benefit the company and societies in different countries. While most researchers in sustainability focus on issues of climate change or relying on natural resources, my research interest explores the big question of utilizing the most area that is spent on, which is marketing and corporate communication, to strive for a better and a more sustainable future.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.