Shawn Schuyler – Humanities Teacher
Teaching and mentoring young people is one of Shawn’s greatest passions, and the yearly opportunity to see students grow academically and in life experience has been an immense source of fulfillment for him. He has been involved in teaching, tutoring, or assistant-teaching at the undergraduate level for the past 15 years, and comes to Greenbrier Academy after several semesters teaching college courses in the History of Religions as visiting faculty.
In the classroom, Shawn enjoys placing academic content and scholarly theories alongside familiar stories and objects drawn from popular culture, media, and the everyday lives of his students and his own family. “When an academic concept becomes relatable to students--when it becomes relevant to their own life experiences, likes, dislikes, and urgent concerns--the energy of the classroom changes, we become inspired learners together, sparking ideas and debates where before there was only ‘schoolwork’ taking place. These are the moments I want to cultivate in the development of every class.”
Shawn has his Masters of Arts in Comparative Religion and Philosophy, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Syracuse University. His other academic interests include literature and poetry, world history (especially the history of contact between different cultures), and the systems sciences of chaos and complexity. When Shawn is not teaching, he enjoys goofing off with his wife and daughters, following Steelers football, seeking out ever-hotter varieties of hot sauce, and playing card-, word-, and board-games of all sorts.
