Professor Lauren Fitzgerald, Chair, YC English Department and Director, Wilf Campus Writing Center
Professor Lauren Fitzgerald chairs the Yeshiva College English Department and directs the Wilf Campus Writing Center, which, along with the Beren Writing Center, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. In the YC English department, she teaches courses on academic writing, digital and multimodal composing, writing research and pedagogy, authorship, and Romantic-period British literature. In the Writing Center, she has prepared hundreds of student tutors and dozens of faculty consultants to work with thousands of writers from the YU community—students, faculty, staff, and alumni. She double majored in Rhetoric & Writing and English as an undergraduate at the University of Tulsa and earned a Ph.D. in English at NYU. Before coming to YU in 1997, she directed the writing center at Barnard College.
- What is your favorite aspect of your job at YU?
Hands down, the part of my job that I enjoy most is working with students in classes, in the Writing Center, and as Chair of English at YC. I’ve learned so much from YU undergraduates, particularly about collaborative learning and ways religious practice can frame how people write and think. What they taught me profoundly influenced my scholarship and teaching.
- What do you consider the best piece of advice to give a burgeoning writer?
Share your work with readers you trust, ask them to tell you how they understand what you wrote, and listen carefully to what they say. If they describe your writing in ways that don’t line up with what you’re trying to do, take another shot. Don’t be afraid to revise—a lot. Because writing is nobody’s first language, no writer gets it right the first time.
- What profession did you think you would one day hold when you were a child?
My Dad tells me I always wanted to be a teacher. By the time I was in high school, I also wanted to be a writer. I think that being an English professor who directs a writing center and teaches writing is the best of both worlds.
- How do you stay connected with students once they graduate?
I always look forward to catching up with students when they need recommendations or confirmation of their work at the Writing Center. In addition, I maintain a Facebook group for former Wilf and Beren writing center tutors and, last spring, my colleagues and I hosted a panel of English major alumni to speak to current students, which was enormously gratifying. My email address hasn’t changed in nearly 20 years; I hope alumni will drop me a line!
- Who is your favorite writer and why?
It’s impossible to pick just one, but over the years I keep returning with admiration and joy to the poetry of William Wordsworth. I love especially the way he struggled to describe the creative process by reflecting on his own thinking and writing. My efforts to understand how he did so solidified my interest in authorship—how writers write—and led to a course that I now teach on this topic.
- What would your colleagues and students be surprised to learn about you?
Maybe because I’ve lived in NYC for more than half of my life, some people are surprised to learn that I grew up and went to college in Oklahoma.
-
Articles
- February 2020
- December 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- October 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
-
Meta