معرفی
Dr. Rebecca Hazen serves as a Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Biology within the College of Arts and Sciences at American University, Washington, D.C. She holds the additional position of CAS Faculty Senate Representative and maintains an active teaching schedule with courses planned through Fall 2025.
Dr. Hazen earned her Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Tulane University and her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from SUNY Cortland. Her educational background forms the foundation for her interdisciplinary approach to both research and teaching.
As an evolutionary biologist and urban ecologist, Dr. Hazen's research focuses on the evolution of plant-insect interactions and the mechanisms shaping urban landscapes. She integrates these research interests with her teaching philosophy, which emphasizes student-centered, problem-based, and active learning approaches that increase student performance across diverse populations. Her teaching strategies prioritize building critical thinking and communication skills through a curriculum that mirrors the scientific discovery process, guided by the principle that 'appreciating the scientific process can be more important than knowing scientific facts.'
Dr. Hazen is committed to anti-racist inclusive excellence in STEM teaching by integrating critical conversations about how power structures shape scientific discourse. She teaches the Introductory Biology course for non-majors, a Complex Problems course in Urban Ecology, and other courses including BIO-100 Essential Biology, BIO-210 General Biology II, and BIO-466 Evolution.
Her work bridges multiple disciplines including biology, sociology, engineering, economics, politics, and public health, recognizing that urban ecology represents an interface where human-built environments affect nature in complex ways that require interdisciplinary solutions.
