• This course, designed for and taught to 3rd year Columbia undergraduates, follows Chinese interactions with Central Asia and Southeast Asia - switching off each week - from 200 BCE to 1930 CE.

  • This course for Columbia underclasspersons introduces students to Japanese history and humanities from earliest times to the present, including many interactions with other regions and much use of primary sources in translation.

    As a teaching assistant, I led two discussion sections and lectured before the whole class on two occasions, once covering the 1590s Japanese invasion of Korea, and once the infamous Japanese isolationatist policies of the centuries following that war. The students reviewed my job performance as their instructor extremely well.

  • This course for Columbia underclasspersons introduces students to Tibetan history and humanities from earliest times to the present, including many interactions with other regions and much use of primary sources in translation.

    As a teaching assistant, I led two discussion sections and gave one full-length lecture to the class, on Mongol-Tibetan interactions.

    Evaluations of my teaching by the students are to be found here.

  • This course for Columbia underclasspersons introduces students to Korean history and humanities from earliest times to the present, including many interactions with other regions and much use of primary sources in translation.

    As a teaching assistant, I led two discussion sections, leading them not only through Korean history but into pandemic life, as well. They showed their appreciation in their evaluations of my work at the end of the semester.

  • This course for Columbia underclasspersons introduces students to Vietnamese history and humanities from earliest times to the present, including many interactions with other regions and much use of primary sources in translation.

    As a teaching assistant, I led two discussion sections. The professor, John Phan, evaluated my teaching on a day on which we discussed the accounts of two Europeans in Vietnam in the 17th century. The students, too, evaluated me well.

  • This course for Columbia underclasspersons introduces students to Chinese history and humanities from earliest times to the present, including many interactions with other regions and much use of primary sources in translation.

    As a teaching assistant, I led two discussion sections, and learned to teach for the very first time. The students were merciful toward me in their evaluations.

Courses Taught

Evaluations by my Students

“Nolan was honestly a heaven (not mandate, ha) send. Truly, he made this course one of the greatest experiences of college. He is strong in all fields.”

“Great. Super knowledgeable, appeared more than willing to answer all questions. Actually came off like he cared a lot about students understanding the topics.”

  • This course, designed as an exercise in the Columbia graduate school class Early Modern Japan, introduces undergraduates to the question of whether nations existed before nationalism. It deals with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean precursors to full national consciousness in the modern period.

  • This is the first course that I am designing explicitly for junior college and community college students. It’s still in its earliest stages of development, be kind.

    It focuses upon early modern global history from 1400 to 1800, telling the stories not only of the 13 colonies that became the US, but the stories of the empires that founded them, and the empires against which those great powers competed.

  • This course, designed for and taught to 3rd year Columbia undergraduates, follows Chinese interactions with Central Asia and Southeast Asia - switching off each week - from 200 BCE to 1930 CE.

Courses Planned