\n\tBy SHANNON O. WELLS<\/p>\n
\n\tEncompassing disciplines from biological sciences and history to neuroscience and religious studies, the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences\u2019 new Seminar in Composition Faculty Fellows Program applies a range of lenses through which first-year Pitt students can explore their relationship with writing and language.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the same time, it provides opportunities for participating faculty to broaden their own experience and share areas of academic expertise through novel directions and approaches.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese are some of our strongest teachers,\u201d noted Jennifer Keating, teaching professor in the Department of English. \u201cThese are faculty who are very committed to undergraduate studies in their own departments and continuing to support students in that trajectory (and) looking for ways to continue to develop their own skill set professionally.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe faculty,\u201d she added, \u201care invested in helping students empower through strong command of language as critical readers as well as writers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSeminar in Composition Faculty Fellows was created in fall 2024 to augment Pitt\u2019s nationally recognized Seminar in Composition program<\/a> \u2014 required for most first-year students \u2014 as an avenue for students to \u201cnavigate complex themes in reading materials\u201d and express themselves through words and language.<\/p>\n \n\tSome examples include:<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEllen Kelsey\u2019s course on storytelling and narratives in science, focusing on Nobel Prize winners and the complexity of failure and achievement in those storylines.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tStephanie Nygaard teaching on neuroscience and mainstream media. \u201cSo, thinking about the ways in which the narratives associated with different features of neuroscience can be examined, analyzed and explored through this composition course,\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tA course taught by Ana Sekuli\u0107, teaching assistant professor in the Department of History, focuses on nature and historical relationships to nature and another history faculty member is focusing on storylines regarding the grand narrative of World War II, Keating noted.<\/p>\n \n\tWith the goal of increasing Seminar in Composition\u2019s disciplinary diversity, faculty fellows from multiple departments \u2014 informed by their own training and keyed to an engaging theme \u2014 design and teach courses for student writers. All sections of Seminar in Composition are expected to share the\u00a0four learning goals<\/a>, which are considered essential for student success at the University level. The goals are to:<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEngage in composing as a creative, disciplined form of critical inquiry.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tCompose thoughtfully crafted essays that position your ideas among other views.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tCompose with precision, nuance and awareness of formal conventions.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tRevise your writing by rethinking the assumptions, aims and effects of prior drafts.<\/p>\n \n\tFueled by a deep pool of faculty members who Keating described as \u201creally passionate about their discipline areas,\u201d she said the perspectives and framings of the first-year classes provide students an \u201caccess point to sensibilities associated with the discipline.\u201d Faculty fellows expose students to certain features of the discipline in a way that\u2019s \u201cexpedient\u201d to students meeting their first-year educational requirements.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt also (provides a sense of) community in regard to teaching practices, to complement the relationships they have in their department,\u201d she said of participating faculty. \u201cI think that\u2019s been attractive to some of these faculty, to learn about how people think across the disciplines and to have a shared enterprise where they can iteratively design a course, have a little bit of support to do so, but also to potentially have a much smaller class.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think a lot of the faculty enjoy that, especially coming from some of our STEM fields, where they might teach large lecture courses. This offers an intimate relationship with undergraduates that they really seem to relish professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u2018Multidisciplinary exposure\u2019<\/p>\n \n\tKeating, a writing in the disciplines specialist in the Dietrich School\u2019s Institute for Writing Excellence<\/a>, said the program builds on the English department\u2019s success record in building specific seminar and composition course designs for entities like the Swanson School of Engineering. It took shape \u201cvery, very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTo further enhance the Dietrich School\u2019s undergraduate experience, Hannah Johnson, associate dean for research and faculty recruitment, and Dietrich School Dean Adam Leibovich explored the feasibility of working with faculty outside the English department on Seminar and Composition designs that met its learning goals and cadre of courses.<\/p>\n \n\tIn spring 2025, Leibovich told the Dietrich School & CGS Showcase<\/a> newsletter that the program \u201creinforces our school-wide commitment to undergraduate teaching and learning.\u201d He called the approach a \u201cnew and creative way of teaching robust writing skills while offering students an opportunity for multidisciplinary exposure.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIn the years to come, we look forward to expanding the program to include Faculty Fellows from even more departments and disciplines so that a growing number of our students can learn the essentials of composition while focusing on subjects they may want to major in, minor in, or just explore more fully.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith the Department of English offering about 180 sections of Seminar Composition each year, Keating said, \u201cyou can imagine the labor involved in ensuring that we have faculty who are ready to teach this course \u2014 one of the very, very few courses required by all of our undergraduate students \u2014 with the continued eye toward building out the quality of educational experiences that our undergraduates can have.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSeminar in Composition, she added, \u201creally is the introduction to the student\u2019s wayfinding through their undergraduate studies.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIdentifying ways for students to be exposed to ways of thinking, ways of communicating and writing in disciplines, in addition to English, is something that was, I think, increasingly attractive to the dean\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tStarting with the engineering school, the Seminar in Composition team \u201cstood up a working committee with faculty from the English Department,\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe original eight fellows started teaching their first courses in fall term 2025 are:<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tBrock Bahler, Religious Studies<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEllen Kelsey, Biological Sciences<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tBridget Keown, Gender, Sexuality and\u00a0Women\u2019s Studies<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tVipin Anantha Krishna, History<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMichelle Morgan, Chemistry<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tStephanie Nygard, Neuroscience<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tLucas Riddle, German<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAna Sekuli\u0107, History<\/p>\n \n\tBahler, who has been on leave, will teach his first SC sections in fall 2026.<\/p>\n \n\tThe most recent faculty selected for the Seminar in Composition Faculty Fellowship include:<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGretchen Bender, History of Art and Architecture (HAA)<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJoshua Ellenbogen, HAA<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tBill Price,\u00a0Linguistics\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEugene Wagner, Chemistry<\/p>\n \n\tThese faculty will prepare for teaching Seminar in Composition this spring and summer and offer their first Seminar in Composition courses in fall 2026.<\/p>\n \tOpen for exploration<\/p>\n \n\tSeven of Seminar in Composition Faculty Fellows courses offered in fall 2026 will be repeated the following spring.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo it\u2019s 13 sections of this disciplinary perspective across 180 sections campus-wide,\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe program may be too new to have much useful data or feedback on students\u2019 experiences. However, she anticipates advisors becoming more skilled \u201cin describing the affordances of these classes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith more courses on offer in the coming years \u2014 including another four fellows coming in, \u201cwhich means we\u2019ll have 12 fellows teaching next academic year\u201d \u2014 that would provide, \u201cbetween 20 and 24 sections next academic year, with different sections of Seminar in Composition,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce we have that type of critical number of offerings, I anticipate \u2026 students gravitating toward these versions of the class that allow them to explore a theme that they\u2019re interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor instance, some non-traditional seminar composition offerings focus on film and education. \u201cWe have a little bit of experience in identifying different ways for students to explore interests that are not necessarily going to directly translate into a major, for example,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe sheer variety creates a strong selling point for new students.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou can imagine the ways in which incoming first-year students, transfer students might see a theme or subject that\u2019s interesting to them,\u201d she said. \u201cPerhaps it\u2019ll open up a pathway into that discipline as a potential major or minor, perhaps not, but it offers the students a little bit of a framing of what they can expect going into that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNoting that it\u2019s too early in the program to gauge its success \u201cin a pithy way,\u201d Keating said she anticipates that something is being created that\u2019s attractive to students while ensuring that \u201cwe are getting this skill-development opportunity for any student matriculating in these courses.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey have the same learning goals across all sections to ensure consistency and stability in the student skill-building for wayfinding through the rest of their undergraduate studies.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn selling and assessing the program, Keating prefers the under promise-and-overdeliver approach.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s modest program. It\u2019s a small program,\u201d she said. I think it will have an impact, but it\u2019s going to take a little while for us to figure out what that impact is.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShannon Wells is a\u00a0University Times reporter. Reach him at\u00a0shannonw@pitt.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share?\u00a0Share<\/a>\u00a0it with the University Times.<\/p>\n