As a gender studies scholar and medical anthropologist, I create learning environments that develop my students’ abilities to critically engage with complex empirical phenomena such as gender, race, and science. Students leave my courses able to recognize the nuance and the significance of such concepts, and with deeper insight into their own learning processes. To this end, I ask students to inhabit multiple roles over the term (reader, facilitator, editor, discussant), as well as integrate opportunities for students to articulate their own goals and engage with primary source materials. In these ways, students at all levels actively engage with course content, increasing their topic knowledge and developing skills which are widely applicable in and outside of the classroom.