Karen Pitt

Bio: Karen Pitt

Karen Pitt (Lecturer) a graduate of Medgar Evers College (MEC) and the CUNY Baccalaureate Program, received her BS/BA in Public Administration and English in 2003. While a student at MEC, she worked as a Teaching Assistant (TA) and Peer Mentor. Her experience as a TA encouraged her to concentrate in teaching composition. With that experience, she continued her academic pursuits and completed her MA in English at Long Island University (LIU), Brooklyn Campus in 2007. LIU ignited her desire to further explore the praxis of teaching writing, which encouraged her to apply to the CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. Program. Her research in composition and rhetoric and Africana Studies focuses on students’ sense of identity, as it pertains to their history and language. She is particularly interested in the impact that students’ home languages have on the academic language, and she seeks strategies on how to reconcile the discrepancy, with the understanding that respect is due to both languages.

At present, Ms. Pitt is a full-time instructor at Medgar Evers College, CUNY in the English Department. She teaches composition at various levels: Basic Skills, Composition I and II, and Intermediate Composition. In the Department, she serves on the composition committee and is actively involved in all composition concerns. Her reading interests are works from African, African American, and Caribbean writers and scholars; these readings help to ignite students’ interest in reading about themselves in connection to their community, the society, and the world and encourage students to engage fully in writing.