Teaching

A genuine love for teaching and mentoring motivated me to pursue my Ph.D. in the first place.

My student-centric teaching philosophy bolsters research-led, globally-focused learning.

In all of my classes, I incorporate primary source material and share my research as a means of encouraging students to draw broader connections between the local and the global, and between the past and the present.

I work to address inequality in higher education and academia through centering students’ strengths and fostering a community both in and beyond the classroom.

In my time as both a Lecturer and a Teaching Assistant at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Yale University, I have developed four central goals:

1. create a student-centric learning environment;

2. connect history to the public realm;

3. foster diversity and accessibility;

4. center an interdisciplinary & global perspective

My teaching also informs my work as a mentor, where I seek to explain and simplify college courses and the research process for students from diverse, underrepresented backgrounds. I have received formal mentorship training as a Mellon Engaging Humanities Fellow and have worked closely with Promise and McNair scholars.

I am equipped to teach a range of courses, including the following fields:

U.S. in the World
- U.S. Foreign Relations
- Cold War
African History
- Southern Africa
World History
U.S. History
Labor and Capitalism
Oral History Theory and Practice
Social Movements
Public History
- Digital History

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Sample Courses

History of the Present: Informing the Public in the Digital Age

This lecture style course invites students to delve deeply into the history behind current headlines, broadening our understanding of the many major challenges U.S. society has faced throughout the twentieth century. The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified digital communication and the rapid sharing of knowledge, including “fake news.” To combat the mainstreaming of perilous, misleading, and often downright false narratives, this course centers the histories undergirding the present. What is the role of the historian in communicating the past to a broader audience? Though content intensive, this course will include a comprehensive introduction to the qualitative research methodologies that are emblems of the best scholarship in the field of history. Students will be completing a rigorous group research project throughout the course, while getting a grasp of classic literature in the field, as well as a number of public-facing pieces that draw connections between current events and the historical processes that undergird them. In a short summer course such as this one, there is no way to cover every major event behind the headlines. We will therefore focus on four primary units, divided up across four weeks of instruction: 1. Foreign Affairs; 2. Race and the Public; 3. Health, the Environment, and Public Policy; 4. The Media, Politics, and Social Movements. There are two meetings reserved for historical methods readings and discussion covering public and oral history. Students will also be able to engage in further reading related discussion through their TA-led discussion sections.

Transnational Anti-Apartheid: The United States & South Africa

Centering the apartheid era in South Africa (1948-1994), this course unpacks the multiple ways apartheid and anti-apartheid intersected with the rise of global governance, decolonization, the Cold War, labor movements, and student movements, among other themes central to both U.S. and South African history. Through a close reading of primary and secondary sources, students will examine the ways apartheid and anti-apartheid shaped the second half of the 20th century in South Africa and the United States. We will grapple with a range of questions, including how transnational connections reveal new perspectives on systems of oppression and resistance in both the United States and South Africa. How did the Cold War and decolonization shape the anti-apartheid movement and African liberation movements? How did ordinary South Africans challenge apartheid? How did the U.S.-based anti-apartheid movement influence official state policy towards South Africa? Since this history is very recent, the legacies of apartheid and the transition to majority rule in 1994 are contested and continue to shape South Africa today. South Africa remains one of the most unequal nations in the world, and faces many compounding crises, including water and electricity shortages, a catastrophically high crime rate, an unrelenting AIDS crisis, and ever-rising unemployment. The enduring relevance of apartheid is evident, both in South Africa and beyond.

Relevant Teaching Experience

Instructor of Record

Yale University: "Transnational Anti-Apartheid: The United States & South Africa" (Fall 2024, seminar)

University of California, Santa Barbara: "History of the Present: Informing the Public in the Digital Age" (Summer 2022, lecture)

I designed my own syllabus for this UCSB course, graded all final projects, delivered the lectures, and supervised two teaching assistants.

Teaching Assistant, UCSB (Section Leader)

My duties were to teach three weekly sections and to grade all of the work of students in my sections.

African History:

Survey of African History to 1800 (Winter 2020, Spring 2021)

Survey of African History, c. 1800-1945 (Winter 2019)

American History:

The American People, c. 1830-1920 (online Winter 2021; )

The American People, c. 1492-1837 (Fall 2019)

The American People, c. 1917-present (Spring 2019)

World History:

World History, c. 1700-present (online Spring 2020; Fall 2018)

World History, prehistory-1000 CE (online Summer 2023)

Teaching Assistant (Course Reader)

My duties were to grade the work of 100 students per course and assist with administrative work, create assignments

U.S. in the World, c. 1945-present (Spring 2018, Spring 2022)

Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness:

Student Feedback

The curriculum for this class was clearly and masterfully thought out providing key Primary and Secondary sources for each class. Dr. Webb sent out a email each week with though-provoking discussion questions for each reading, sharpening focus and the analytical mind. Dr .Webb engages her students well with professionalism, sensitivity and is an exceptional model for scholarship.

The strengths in the course come from the readings and discussions. As a whole, the readings were very diverse in topics and approaches, especially in the second half of the course when first hand sources were more emphasized. The lengthy class discussions were well led by Dr. Webb, who gave us the space to lead the conversations in the direction as determined by the students. In addition, the assignments gave us the flexibility to engage with whatever interested us most. Few weaknesses come to mind: some discussions were invariably more interesting than others, but this was one of my favorite all around courses I've taken.

Very personable, felt like she made a great effort to get to know the class. Made sure we were on task and knew what expectations were for our assignments. Class discussions were quite good, I felt there was good space for students to express how they felt and I enjoyed how every student seemed to have their own personal areas of interest that they could talk about. Her comments on papers were also very helpful, I appreciated the depth and guidance for further research. Overall, within the small group environment and with (I think) a really good group of students she was great!

I LOVED having Mattie Webb as a TA for this Hist 2A course over the summer. She was amazing at not pressuring students but enabling a supported learning environment which made her students want to participate and contribute to group discussions. She had very clear instructions for assignments and her requirements, planned out and precise yet helpful and fun lesson plans, and was overall a great teacher! Could not profess my love for her or her teaching style enough."

“Mattie was super welcoming, she had a great understanding of the material with an enthusiastic attitude! She was very helpful and quick to respond to emails, making her really accessible. I loved having Mattie as a TA this quarter and would love to have her as a TA again for another class!”

"Mattie is an excellent TA. She is able to get everyone enthusiastically involved each week. She is really quite good."

“Mattie is very enthusiastic and jolly in our section. She always comes on zoom with a smile which opens up a positive space for us. She is very helpful and accommodating to our circumstances."

“Mattie is probably the best TA I’ve ever had! She was so enthusiastic and always had like a Language/Word of the Week for us just to introduce us a little more to the varying cultures in Africa. Her class/zoom room was always a very comfortable place to talk and share our ideas but I am a little shy so I tried participating through the chat function. I think that Mattie was a very great TA and helped me so much in learning and understanding the material we were presented”

“She clearly put in the hours outside of class in order to be able to explain points of confusion for us. The structure of our sections was quite wonderful, with sheets at the beginning of section that had our day plan etc.; so organized!! I have a lot of respect for her as a teacher.”

“I love the environment she creates and the resources she provided to help us with or essays. I'm glad that a good amount of class was dedicated to her writing expectations.”

“I’m happy to call Mattie the best at UCSB, an inspiring mentor, a committed student advocate"

“After the first week, Mattie began sending out reading guides and helping us to prioritize what was most important in each week's material to focus our studying. This was incredibly helpful. The Google Docs assignments were also very helpful, especially when it came to writing for the midterm. Our midterms were given back with lots of very thoughtful feedback, which I really appreciated. Even though we didn't meet face to face, Mattie was a very effective teacher, which was incredible. She did a great job adapting to the online format and being incredibly understanding of everyone's situations."

“Her strength is definitely her adaptiveness. The way that she managed to keep adapting to new difficult circumstances with ease was very remarkable. This strength also showed in the way that she would accommodate to her students’ needs all the while providing the best education possible. In that case, her leadership strengths showed as well.