Fellow Reflections: Sara Feinstein
By Sara Feinstein (Spring 2026 Seminar Fellow)
I did not have a substantial background learning about China prior to participating in the CACI seminar. I was seeking an opportunity to learn about China and consider how a cross-cultural perspective might shape my research interests and ideas for teaching. I really enjoyed learning about the political and economic context in China through this seminar. I especially enjoyed The Chinese Mayor documentary, which we used to discuss China’s political system and to reflect on how to incorporate media and film in our teaching. I also enjoyed the lecture on Confucian perspectives on bereavement leave, by Prof. Wenqing Zhao, during our symposium at the beginning of the semester. I feel that I am coming away from this seminar with a better understanding of some of the political and cultural differences between China and the United States.
As I prepare to teach next Fall, I expect to incorporate the Confucian ideas around bereavement leave (as I am teaching a course on death, dying, and bereavement), focusing on how the Confucian perspective differs from the expectations and policies regarding bereavement leave common in the United States. In the future, I expect to incorporate comparative perspectives regarding China in the courses that I teach. The lesson plans that I created will be great to use for a future Introduction to Sociology course or for a course on technology and society.
Along with specific content from the seminar that I enjoyed, I also really appreciated the opportunity to discuss different pedagogical approaches with other CACI Teaching and Seminar fellows. As I am teaching for the first time this semester, I have found that teaching is rewarding but also that there is a significant learning curve. I feel that I have improved markedly as an instructor throughout this semester and the conversations I had with other CACI fellows definitely played a role in my improvement. It was especially helpful to hear about challenges other graduate students have navigated with teaching, such as how to respond to student AI use.
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