News & Events
Big Apple Inspires Two City Tech Professors
Professors But (left) and Noonan
What circumstances could lead a young woman from Hong Kong and a young man from rural Connecticut to team up to create what they believe is the first and only college writing textbook that explores and celebrates New York City?
Necessity turned out to be the mother of invention for Juanita But and Mark Noonan, two assistant professors of English at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) when they learned that they would be teaching composition to a freshman class. At the outset, they decided that the best way to motivate their diverse, urban students was “to engage them in the process of reading and thinking critically about their immediate surroundings,” says Noonan.
“But our exhaustive search for a textbook on writing that focused on their real-life situations -- that would excite their interest and imagination -- turned up nothing," he continued. "That’s when we realized that we would have to do the job ourselves.” So in 2003, they began to put together a textbook focusing on New York City – “its beauty, its energy, its warts and all.”
The result of their efforts is The Place Where We Dwell: Reading and Writing about New York City, published by Kendall/Hunt, an anthology that addresses every aspect of life in the Big Apple. In addition to being used at City Tech, the book is also staple of writing instructors at Queens College, St. Francis, St. John’s and City College.
The book’s first section, “Here is New York,” deals with such topics as city life, immigration, the class divide, education and urban violence. Colin Powell’s “My American Journey,” June Jordan’s “For My American Family,” Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s “My Name Is Not Cool Anymore,” Jacob Riis’s “How the Other Half Lives,” Ralph Ellison’s “Prologue to Invisible Man” and Anna Quindlen’s “Homeless” are some of the works presented.
The second section, “Literary New York,” introduces students to the chestnuts of New York’s literary world, featuring works by Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Ezra Pound, Langston Hughes and Jack Kerouac, among others. “While most of the selections are essays,” says Noonan, “other genres – short stories, poems, news articles -- are included to give students a broad sense of the possibilities of written language.”
Such a rich and diverse collection has, predictably, incited probing discussions and written critiques. “We have found,” says But, “that these provocative pieces lead to lively classroom discussions and, more importantly, serve as models for student writing, as we intended.” The course has been enriched by scheduled field trips to such sites as the Brooklyn Historical Society and Plymouth Church and by visiting such websites as Gotham Gazette.
Both professors, relative newcomers to New York City, identify strongly with its vitality and ethos But, born in Hong Kong, came to New York via Paris to earn her PhD at SUNY Buffalo. Now a resident of Downtown Brooklyn, she has been on City Tech’s faculty for five years and also teaches ESL classes in Chinatown.
Noonan, who grew up in Old Saybrook, CT, spent 10 years in Switzerland and holds dual citizenship. He earned his PhD from The CUNY Graduate Center, has been on City Tech’s faculty for three years and lives on the Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“Maybe it had to take a couple of outsiders with a fresh eye to see the many aspects of the City as the perfect kaleidoscope for a textbook on creative writing,” says Noonan.
With so much to choose from, the selection process was long and complicated, they explain. Not the least of their problems was obtaining the rights to include various works in the book without incurring great expense. Now in the process of creating a second edition, the authors are benefiting from what they learned the first time around. They plan to expand the literature section and will invite the collaboration of additional professors at City Tech and from other New York colleges.
“Here at City Tech, we have an urban and international student population,” says But, “so our students can really embrace the narratives in the book.” Impressed by the breadth and depth of the selections included, a reviewer for The Journal of American Culture wrote that this book will have a special appeal for “the kind of students who are out there earning the minimum wage or who work part time in the jobs that fuel our service economy.”
Fundamentally, But adds, “The Place Where We Dwell” is highly recommended “for faculty who think their students need to look beneath the grime to the soul of the city.”
11/14/06
