Bio

Dr. Karen Pitt is Doctoral Lecturer in the Department of English and World Languages at Medgar Evers College (MEC) of the City University of New York (CUNY). As a graduate of the English Program at the Graduate Center, CUNY (2023), her research concentration in writing studies focuses on literacy counterstory, pedagogical counterstory, critical race theory, critical race praxis, and educational disfranchisement. In 2007, she received her English MA in the teaching of writing at Long Island University (LIU), Brooklyn Campus. As an undergraduate of MEC (2003), Dr. Pitt has first-hand experience in navigating MEC pedagogical, administrative, and institutional landscapes. She has taught composition at various levels: Basic Skills, Composition I and II, and Intermediate Composition. In the Department, she serves on multiple committees. In particular, she serves on the Composition Committee, which allows her to be actively involved in all writing and language concerns in the Department. Her writings explore the ways in which one’s lived experiences can be used as counternarratives to established knowledges. Her reading interests draw from works from the African diaspora, particularly women writers and scholars, which help to ignite students’ interest in reading about themselves in connection to their community, the society, and the world. This understanding, she contends, encourages students to embrace their nurtured literacy practices in the pursuit of meaningful reading and writing.