On receiving awards from the Chancellor this spring, two Pitt English Writing professors feel that the spotlight on Pitt’s English department can inspire their students, as well as underscore the academic theme at the heart of nonfiction writing: curiosity.
Distinguished Professor Jeanne Marie Laskas and Professor Michael Meyer were awarded with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Awards for research and teaching, respectively.
For Laskas, her research in nonfiction writing is not the sort of lab- or archive-based endeavor that's often associated with academia; rather, her research is the cumulative result of years of immersing herself into different worlds. The result of her “study” is an ongoing reminder, a path, or perhaps a virtue that answers the question of what nonfiction writing is: For Laskas, writing is the act of listening.
“My style is a little bit different from others because I don’t go in with a lot of questions—I go in with a mission to listen,” Laskas said.
Laskas writes what she calls “character-based stories” attuned to the dynamics of people, subcultures, and different communities. Although Laskas believes curiosity is the heart of immersion-based writing, it’s not her own questions that guide her in researching for an article, essay, or book; rather, it's what the subject wants to share.
In her prolific career, Laskas has written about everything from presidents to football players to coal mines. As the author of eight books, including the New York Times best-selling investigation Concussion—which was turned into the 2015 film by the same name starring Will Smith—Laskas has learned that curiosity is the way to a subject, but paying attention is the way to a story.
“A lot of it is really shutting up and paying attention and letting people know you’re paying attention,” Laskas said.
Laskas finds that many writers pressure themseles into outlining an interview before it even happens. While Laskas believes preparation for an interview is necessary, in her own experience, she’s learned that the best results come from letting the source guide the immersion.
“It’s always really intimidating for everyone to go and talk to strangers. It certainly is for me. I mean, it still is, to this day. You get nervous: ‘What am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to ask?’” Laskas said.
“What I’m interested in is just what I’m interested in. But what is this person [the subject] interested in?” Laskas explained. “This is where it comes back to listening. If I’m talking to coal
miners, you know, 500 feet below the ground, what I’m interested in is, ‘Is it scary? This is really scary.’ But that's not what they're interested in. They don't think it's scary or dangerous. They've been doing this their whole lives.”
The art of the interview, in Laskas’ opinion, has always been, and will always be, a daunting task for any writer, including herself. Laskas noted that good writing comes from good interactions with people— when a writer truly listens, they can unveil a kind of wonder a subject might not even think they possess.
“I think I find this so often that people don’t realize how interesting they are,” Laskas said. “They’re like ‘Why are you so interested in this?’ And I genuinely am—I’m not faking it. I think people are not used to being listened to and it can really be transformative.”
Teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, Laskas encourages her students to follow their curiosity and then work hard to revise one story, usually over the course of an entire semester.
In her teaching, Laskas applies the lessons of her experience and research in nonfiction by telling her students that at the heart of all research is curiosity and that curiosity comes without limits. Her years of experience translate into a continual reminder that stories are everywhere; writers just have to believe in the importance of their own interests.
“I don’t know if you can teach curiosity, but you can coach it,” Laskas said. “You can show students that whatever they're curious about is valid. You don’t have to be curious about what I’m curious about.”
Teaching, for Laskas, isn’t a one-sided act, though. In supporting her students’ interests, Laskas finds that her students offer a source of community, one that nourishes her own experience as well.
“I learn as much through teaching as I teach. It’s really great to have a community of writers.”
Recognized for excellent teaching, Michael Meyer, also a professor of nonfiction writing at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, bases his teaching methods on fostering this sense of community among writers. To Meyer, a successful class means success for each and every student, and to achieve that end, Meyer aims to get students to trust one another's as well as their own capabilities.
Although Meyer labels himself as a “tough teacher,” he’s made countless meaningful relationships with students over the years. The difficulty level of Meyer’s classes and his involvement in students’ development are not mutually exclusive. In his opinion, Meyer believes that Pitt students are motivated to work hard and want to be challenged.
Still, Meyer doesn’t throw his students in the deep end without proper training.
For the 30 years he’s been teaching, Meyer has used the educational philosophy of Jerome Bruner, a Harvard educational psychologist who believed motivation to be the key to teaching, as a guide for himself.
“He [Bruner] said that the way you motivate students is to show them the value of an activity, and that value gets multiplied by ‘do they feel capable of accomplishing that activity?’” Meyer said.
Meyer believes that his students’ growth lies in the way he structures his teaching from bottom to top, rather than top to bottom—in other words, starting from where the student is. Instead of repeating course material, Meyer is “constantly inventing new things” as the semester goes on based on who his students are and what they need.
“I am constantly monitoring where they’re at and then adapting and creating assignments that get us to the next level,” Meyer said. “I need to help us all get to the same goal by the end of the semester.”
One creative way Meyer addresses the combined tasks of easing interview anxiety and getting his students to know one another is through an activity where Meyer asks them to interview one another on a personal level and then introduce their partner to the class.
Meyer wants his students to succeed together as a whole, a focus he attributes to his years as an elementary school teacher.
“You need everybody pulling in the same direction, especially in a writing class where we do a ton of workshopping.”
In writing classes, students participate in workshops where they share their work-in-progress and give one another feedback. It can be a vulnerable activity, where students fear how their classmates might judge their work or the personal subjects they share in their writing. To help foster a positive workshop environment, Meyer focuses on getting his students to prioritize trust and respect for one another’s opinions.
“Students have to trust each other, and they have to also understand that they might not always like someone’s feedback, but I bet, at least once during the semester, someone will say something helpful or interesting,” Meyer said.
In regard to encouraging students to build trust with each other, Meyer knows the importance of doing his part as well.
Like Laskas, Meyer also believes that supporting his students’ interests is a priority. He seeks to offer his support beyond the classroom.
“I tell my students that our classes come with a life-time warranty,” Meyer said.
With active involvement in his students’ lives being a priority to Meyer, he often worries that the nature of a large university makes connections between students and faculty difficult.
“We don’t have a lot of natural interactions, and it's hard, I think, for students because there’s not a place where professors hang out,” Meyer said. “Pitt is very vertically organized. I worry sometimes that students don’t have professors that are present and interested in their lives, or that they get to see daily.
“Because those organic interactions are so important, just to check in, like, ‘How are you doing today?’ ‘What's going on?’ ‘Can I help you with anything?’ ‘Do you need a rec letter?’—those sort of things,” Meyer said.
Both Meyer and Laskas feel that their recognition from the Chancellor, and the colleagues who nominated them, is a win not just for themselves, but for the English Writing community at Pitt as a whole.
With a large emphasis placed these days on STEM fields, English often gets left out of the conversation, or portrayed as a less lucrative field for students to enter. These awards for research and teaching signal something much greater than just recognition for both Laskas and Meyer.
“It’s a really huge honor to get this award at an institution where STEM research is so huge and groundbreaking and humanities sometimes takes a backseat,” Laskas said. “For this work to be recognized, I think, speaks highly of Pitt.”
“At Pitt, it's amazing that anyone recognizes that teaching writing matters,” Meyer said. “Nonfiction is always sort of the forgotten stepchild of writing programs: poetry is beautiful and poetry is art and fiction writing is gorgeous, and when you talk about style and creativity, nonfiction and journalism are often seen as lesser in a way—nonfiction and journalism are often seen as less of an art and more of a trade.”
For Laskas, the English department’s receipt of such significant awards is a sign of Pitt’s support not only for writing but also for creativity as a whole. In 2016, when Laskas introduced her idea for the Center for Creativity at Pitt, she was met with welcome support from the administration. She sees her winning the Chancellor’s Research Award as another sign of Pitt’s commitment to supporting creative endeavors.
Both Laskas and Meyer hope their awards can also validate the hard work of their students, draw attention to the importance of their fields of study, and inspire them to keep fostering their curiosity.
In preparation for the Teaching award, Meyer had to submit a dossier of student work, syllabi, and course evaluations. When he won, Meyer said it felt like his students had won.
Laskas believes that winning the Chancellor’s Research award for her work in nonfiction writing can give Pitt English students more confidence at a time when, Laskas feels, the choice to study humanities comes with a great deal of future-job anxiety and doubt.
“I love what it says to the students, especially at this time when people are becoming English majors and wondering if they should, if that’s even valued anymore, or history majors, or all things humanities,” Laskas said. “And then when you see in this world, something like this going to someone in the humanities, you go, ‘Okay, this really has value.’
“I like to think it gives all of us in the humanities some bragging rights,” Laskas added. “It feels really great to have that acknowledgement. Do I take it personally? Sure, of course I do, but I think it’s more the collective that should feel really great [about the award].”
In a time when students are pressured to secure jobs like they’re playing the Game of Life, Laskas encourages students not to undervalue the importance of following their passion.
“I had great parents because they just always encouraged me to do what I love, and I don’t hear that message so strongly in the era we’re living in. It’s always, ‘Make sure there’s a ladder you can climb,’” Laskas said. “I think that's valid for a lot of careers, but if you find something you love and there isn’t a clear ladder or path, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”
As for soothing the anxieties of English majors, Laskas admits that her outlook may sound naive, but she means it with full sincerity:
“You’re so lucky if you found something you love in your soul and all it takes is a little bit of courage to follow it.”
—Tanya Babbar
Tanya Babbar is a rising junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in Writing (nonfiction) and minoring in Creative Writing. She likes to find the stories that live in Pittsburgh and writes about culture at The Pitt News.