Personal Statement

Get to Know Me

Hello! My name is Sanja (pronounced Sa-nyah) and I use she/her pronouns. 

I am an Instructional Designer in eLearning at Seattle Central College. I am passionate about the architecture behind the learning process and how educational technology tools can help us grow equity and accessibility in the classroom and beyond. I especially love designing courses and finding new ways to build community in the classroom. I sincerely believe in quality pedagogy whether one is teaching online, hybrid, or in person. To me, all of the modalities are equal in potential. 

I am a former refugee from Bosnia and Hercegovina and an adopted Seattleite. Besides instructional design, I love Islamic world history (particularly Ottoman, as I am an Ottomanist), BTS, sports (Sounders, Arsenal, Hawks), snail mail, traveling, and social justice.

My Teaching Style

I gravitate towards Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a pedagogical framework. I think it is one of the best tools at our disposal for achieving inclusivity in education. Instructional design should always start with the idea that all students learn differently and that all students deserve to learn and be taught according to their needs and talents. I strive to present information to students in a variety of ways and to give students options for perception, comprehension, and expression. Overall, I think variety is crucial to good teaching. 

Over the years, I have also learned that it is easy to forget that we are all people with our individual and common burdens. In this spirit, I focus heavily on building community with and among my students. I believe that this is truly the lynchpin to growing equity and accessibility in the classroom, combating structural inequality, and making education relevant and useful for all. 

What to Expect in Our Class

Weeks in my class are organized around the Active Learning Cycle. Each week is focused on a particular concept. We start the week by exploring the concept using various lenses. Throughout the week, we build our knowledge of the concept by working on various assignments, readings, exercises, videos, discussions, etc. At the end of the week, we apply the knowledge we've built throughout the week. So, rather than diving in, each week is a learning process. Because I gravitate towards the UDL framework, this learning process is as varied as possible. We engage in a variety of exercises that cater to diverse learners to try and holistically understand a concept and to capitalize on our strengths. You are never expected to show up knowing absolutely everything, and our focus is on learning together as a community.

I like to use a variety of educational technology tools to teach deep, critical, and diverse histories, to foster a climate of multicultural appreciation, to integrate a diversity of voices (particularly those of the historically marginalized), and to cater to diverse learning styles. I believe this approach fosters equity and accessibility in the classroom no matter the modality and starts to chip away at structural inequalities.

Given my focus on community-building, one of the founding tenets of all of my classes is civil discourse. We start each class by talking about our expectations of one another and by setting our community guidelines. As we move through the class, particularly when we have difficult discussions (and we will have many), we revisit these. We hold each other to these guidelines and center our community on respect.

Lastly, I know how financially draining college is. I also believe strongly in open education and open educational resources (OER). In all of my classes, I try to keep costs as low as possible, preferably $0, and to use free OER materials whenever and wherever we can.

My Work in the Community

• "Documentary Records of Conversions among Ottoman Palace Personnel." In Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook, edited by Nimrod Hurvitz, Christian C. Sahner, Uriel Simonsohn, and Luke Yarbrough, University of California Press, 2020.
• "Sixteenth-Century Poturnak Endowments in the Ottoman Western Balkans: The Boljanić Family.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 6, no. 2 (2019): 155-173.
• “The Sultan’s Eunuch.” Co-host. Ottoman History Podcast.
• “What is Good Teaching?” Panel Member, Dept. of History at Ohio State, October 2018.
• “The Islamisation of Ottoman Bosnia: Myths and Matters.” In Islamisation: Comparative Perspectives from History, edited by A.C.S. Peacock, pp. 277-295. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
• Midwest Slavic Conference Panel Organizer and History-Planning Committee Member, Center for Slavic and East European Studies at Ohio State, March 2017.
• Outreach Contributor to Granville High School (Columbus, OH) students’ senior capstone projects, Center for Slavic and East European Studies at Ohio State, February 2017.
• “A Discussion of the Refugee Crisis in Europe: The Balkan Perspective.” Invited talk, Lakeland Community College, Kirtland, OH, April 2016.
• “Bosniak Institute – Foundation Adil Zulfikarpašić.” HAZINE, 25 Sep 2014.
• “Is It Only a Game?” Review of Ajax, The Dutch, The War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest Hour, by Simon Kuper. Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective (February 2013).
• “Islam in the Balkans.” Invited talk, Midwest Slavic Conference, K-12 Teacher Workshop, Center for Slavic and East European Studies, OSU, March 2012.

My Credentials

I earned my BA in History from Seattle University and my MA and PhD in History from The Ohio State University. I specialize in History as well as Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. 

I have a decade of practical experience teaching and designing in-person, hybrid, and fully online courses at the college level.

In 2018, I won the Graduate Associate Teaching Award and the Ohio State Phi Alpha Theta History Clio Award for Outstanding Teaching at The Ohio State University.