PALA/CE Faculty News

Brain imaging failed to crack the code on mental illness. Can the humanities help?

May 2, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

At NYU SPS PALA/CE, we are on the lookout for new studies and commentary that can help us better understand the society we live in and our place in it. For NYU News, Jade McClain, interviewed Gallatin Professor Bradley Lewis and University of the Arts Helsinki Professor Jussi Valtonen, who released a paper on how the humanties could support mental illness treatment.

Read on below for a re-post of the article: “Brain imaging failed to crack the code on mental illness. Can the humanities help?”

The following is a re-post from NYU News, written by Jade McClain.

When a person breaks a bone, an x-ray allows a doctor to identify and treat the problem. But for those suffering with psychiatric disorders such as depression or schizophrenia, an internal look at the brain fails to provide such a remedy. The lack of success is not for lack of trying, as scientists have spent decades studying the brain for clues about mental illness.

Neuroscientist Thomas Insel, dubbed “the nation’s psychiatrist,” recently discussed the shortcomings science has yielded with regard to patient outcomes. During his time as the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, he focused the agency’s work particularly on neuroscience. This prompted scientists to search for answers to questions about mental health by studying the complexity of the brain, but didn’t encourage them to address the behavioral, cultural, social, political, religious, existential, and psychological factors that can offer insight into what mental health means and how it’s related to the human condition.

This problem is explained by Gallatin Professor Bradley Lewis and University of the Arts Helsinki Professor Jussi Valtonen in their recent Journal of Medical Humanities article, “The Brain Disorders Debate, Chekhov, and Mental Health Humanities.”

“The situation does stand in stark contrast…with the early research optimism that neuroimaging inspired when the methods first became available,” they write. “Instead, we are left with no reliably identified brain activation patterns for any mental health conditions.”

Their article acknowledges that neuroscience is helpful, but argues that it is not enough: the arts and humanities must work alongside scientific pursuits in order to advance our understanding of mental health.

NYU News joined Lewis and Valtonen to discuss the state of mental health in the US and how disciplines focused on the human experience and pursuit of meaning can play a key role in understanding and treating mental illness.

How would you describe the current state of mental health in the US?

Lewis: It’s no secret that our country is in a mental health crisis. A recent CNN survey found that 90 percent of respondents thought we were in a crisis, and President Biden has made this a key priority of his administration. The White House fact sheet on the mental health crisis reports that “two in five American adults are suffering symptoms of anxiety and depression,” more than “half of parents express concern over their children’s mental well-being,” and “over 40 percent of teenagers are dealing with persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.”

COVID and post-COVID hardships have no doubt played a major role in these escalating statistics. But all the blame cannot be put on the pandemic. Even before 2020, our country was seeing large numbers of the population going through deep and difficult experiences of sadness, despair, anxiety, panic, trauma, isolation, addiction, alienation, and suicidal ideation.

This ongoing mental health crisis is exposing problems with our overwhelmed mental health care systems and has a knock-on detrimental effect on community issues such as homelessness, education, labor, physical health, family life, community trust, and criminal justice.

How have the natural sciences fallen short in addressing mental illness?

Valtonen: The promissory note of psychiatric brain research is not coming true. For decades, psychiatric researchers were working incredibly hard to find causes of depression and other mental health problems in neurotransmitters, such as serotonin. Despite extensive investment and numbers of studies, no convincing evidence ever emerged that depression would be caused by a lack of serotonin—as summarized most recently in an umbrella review published last year in Molecular Psychiatry.

A very similar thing has happened with functional neuroimaging. Very high hopes and massive research efforts have been placed in brain imaging, in the hope that we would find revelatory explanations for mental health problems from brain activation patterns. However, no consistent results have emerged even after three decades of study. Contrary to what was hoped, it has proven very difficult to find any replicable findings from these studies.

Brain imaging does not tell us how to make sense of our singular experiences, what it feels like to be a human being alive today, what we’re lacking when life doesn’t feel meaningful, why we’re struggling, or what we need when we’re in despair. Modern brain research tools are useful and exciting methods for studying brain function, but they’re not a shortcut to understanding the human condition. It’s not so much that neuroscience has fallen short of addressing mental health issues, but more that we, as Western cultures, have insisted on looking to neuroscience for answers to questions that are fundamentally outside its purview.

How can mental health practitioners use the arts and humanities to help people with mental illness?

Lewis: In spite of the lack of evidence that brain research is the golden ticket for mental health issues, our current treatment systems are biased toward biological and neurological models and thus toward psychiatric medications. High numbers of people seeking help for their suffering are being over-diagnosed and over-medicated. This has been a growing problem since the 1980s but has dramatically worsened in the current mental health crisis. Recent estimates suggest that 1 in 4 people are taking mental health medications.

This push toward medication has meant we have underdeveloped and neglected other approaches. Mental health education, research, and practice has rarely looked across the college campus to draw insights from the arts, from humanities, and from cultural, political, and religious studies.

But there is much value in these other domains, which is why we are advocating for mental health humanities to augment mental health sciences. The arts and humanities help us—both mental health practitioners and clients—understand human experience and human needs in a way that other approaches cannot. They help us make new meanings and refresh older meanings. They contribute to our happiness, our well-being, our democracy, and can shed light on social conflicts. Beyond psychology’s categories or neuroscience’s findings, these arts and humanities domains add a value dimension to our world that is good for its own sake. By leaving them out, we are left with an understanding of mental health that is rudimentary and a response to mental issues that is woefully inadequate.

Is there a role for people with mental illness to personally engage with the arts and humanities for their benefit?

Lewis: When we have troubles in our lives, either because we suffer or because we are different from normative expectations, we need ways to understand this suffering and this difference. A diagnosis of mental illness, often using biological metaphors and models, is one of the ways we can try to understand this suffering. But this interpretation only scratches the surface. The arts and humanities help us open to additional meaning-making possibilities, in which prejudice and stigma go down and new opportunities and options arise. Reading, dance, photography, gallery and museum visiting, puppetry, music listening, storytelling, philosophy, theater, cooking, film, quilting, and so on, allow for new connections to be made, and new ways of living that lead to less suffering and alienation.

The arts and humanities can help on a community level too. Personal mental experience is deeply connected to social, cultural, and political life. The meaning-making that over-individualizes mental issues is a key aspect of over-diagnosis and over-medication. When we move out of this individualizing frame, we understand that mental difficulties are deeply linked with community and institutional dysfunction, with social inequality and injustice, and with frayed and neglected community resources. The arts and humanities can help us imagine, nurture, and create healthy institutions and communities that foster mental well-being. They often do so, in part, by asking questions, rather than insisting on conventional understandings and established power dynamics. At a broader level of public health, there are also growing initiatives that focus on the possibilities of increasing wellbeing through community arts and humanities initiatives.

Valtonen: In this paper, we are focusing on the ways the arts and humanities can provide more multifaceted ways of thinking about what our experiences mean. For example, we discuss how engaging with literature such as Anton Chekhov’s short story, “A Nervous Breakdown,” helps us pay closer attention to the multiple ways in which a person’s suffering can be understood. As Chekhov shows us, there is quite a range of psychological, social, and biological factors as well as political and other forces affecting the main character’s reactions to a complicated situation. Paying closer attention to the multiple meanings in singular painful experiences through art can help us be more receptive to them in life.

What do you see as next steps?

Lewis: When we put this together, it seems clear that now is the time to develop mental health arts and humanities to join with mental health sciences in order to research, teach, and practice mental health care. Our mental health issues are too big and too complex to mobilize only half of the university. It’s an all hands on deck situation!

Read the original article on NYU News.

Visit the Academy of Lifelong Learning website to explore all upcoming course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.

These humanties courses may be of particular interest:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Then and Now
Art from the Age of Cathedrals: Medieval Art and Architecture
Touched by Fire: Van Gogh’s Passion
Micro Memoir: Writing Your Life In 200 Words Or Less
Cultural History of NYC from the Jazz Age to Post-War Modernism

Lunch with Marjorie Merriweather Post: A Lively Discussion

March 30, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

“This program was fantastic! I really enjoyed it. Great speaker.” Betty Perlish (attendee)

speakers — Ken Mensing with Amy McIntosh

On March 22, NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) hosted a free lunchtime event with historian Ken Mensing on the fascinating socialite and philanthropist, Marjorie Merriweather Post. It was well-attended at the midtown campus, with many ALL students and the SPS community in the audience, including Amy McIntosh, Chief Marketing Officer of NYU SPS with whom Ken works.

Ken said “It is always a thrill to be able to share the story of Marjorie Merriweather Post with a new audience. Marjorie was such an inspirational woman and having the opportunity to share a bit of her extraordinary life with others is such a privilege for me.” Mensing is a Marjorie Merriweather Post expert, having been the first historian of the LIU Post Campus (located on the late businesswoman’s estate), and also he has spoken to many of Post’s close family members. As ALL student, Marsha Starr commented, “Ken was beyond knowledgeable and you could feel his fondness for Majorie Merriweather Post as well as her family.” Mensing led an engaging conversation about the life of this successful American woman, which sparked many questions at the end of his presentation.

Marsha Starr, Ken Mensing, Amy Tannenbaum

“I thought the lunchtime presentation was relaxed and I do not think there was one question, even if esoteric, Ken did not have a thorough and confident answer for, which was nice and very professional,” said student, Amy Danziger Tenenbaum.

Join us for our next lunchtime event, “When Harry Meets Sara”: Lunch & Chat with Harry Chotiner & Sara Lukinson on June 5^th from 12-1:30pm, where the two instructors will dive into their favorite films and personal stories from within the industry.

These events are free!

To to explore all upcoming course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.you can visit the Academy of Lifelong Learning website

Landing Your Dream Job: An Interview with Georgina Levitt

March 17, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Whether you are hoping to advance your current career or pursue a totally new path, it can be daunting to know where to start. In our master class, Landing Your Dream Job, taught by communications strategist Georgina Levitt, you can gain skills and insight on how to land your dream job. Using your education, experience, and skills, Levitt will teach you how to craft a personal brand that communicates your unique talents and personality. Levitt has 20+ years in communications, working for publishing and media companies such as The Hachette Book Group, Perseus Books Group, Gotham Ghostwriters, and The Weinstein Company. Currently she is the Book Publishing Director for the New York University Summer Publishing Institute.

Read on below for our Q&A with Georgina Levitt about what you can expect from her masterclass.

What can students expect from the Landing Your Dream Job master class?

GL: Students will walk away from this class with a clear understanding of the skills and assets they bring to the professional table, and most importantly, a clear way to articulate and pitch these to potential employers. Through the exploratory process of this class, students will determine and then be able to confidently convey the unique value they bring to an organization they want to work for. The goal is a comprehensive understanding of where each student currently is professionally, where they ultimately want to be, and determining the tools and a roadmap for how to get them there.

Why is a personal brand valuable in building a career?

GL: A personal brand is essential to building a career. Understanding who you truly are, what you stand for, what assets you possess, and what sets you apart from your peers and competitors is imperative. The next step is being able to succinctly demonstrate (and in many cases pitch) these qualities with confidence, professionalism, and grace to others, which is a skill to be honed. The better you can define and understand your personal brand, the better you can advance yourself and the value you bring to the professional world.

In your experience, what challenges do people face most in furthering their careers? How can this course help?

GL: All too often I see people face a crisis of character or confidence that holds them back or sets them off course in their career path. Lack of confidence to go after your dream job, even if it feels somewhat out of reach, can result in missed opportunities, ones that a more aggressive or confident competitor out there will jump at, regardless of whether they are better suited for it or not. Similarly, not knowing how to pitch yourself properly can lead to fumbled interviews or career advancing opportunities. In this course you will do your homework, learn to understand yourself and how present your best self to others, and have the hands-on tools you need to take the next step in your career.

What advice do you give those starting out on a new career path?

GL: Patience is key. Launching a new career or making a career pivot, while exciting, can be frustrating. New opportunities can also mean starting again and working your way up which takes time. Also, establishing a sense of balance between your new and old career paths is important. While it may feel like you are starting over, you almost certainly have valuable experiences and acquired skills you can and should use to help boost your new start. Mapping out a clear plan, understanding the value you bring, and focusing on strategic steps to achieve your goals will all aid in this new process.

How can students begin to take an inventory of their interests and assets?

GL: That is just it. Take inventory. List the experiences (professional and personal) you have had that enriched, benefited, or changed your life and those around you. How so, and what skills did you exemplify or acquire in the process? Now go a step further with these experiences in mind. List three words to describe yourself. Now, list three words to describe yourself that make you stand apart from those around you. These are the kind of exercises and thought processes we will explore in this course, all with the goal of advancing your career goals and successes.

Visit the Academy of Lifelong Learning website to explore all upcoming course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.

“Unretirement Conversations”: An Interview with Journalist Richard Eisenberg

March 9, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

If you have recently transitioned to retirement, you might be thinking—what next? This universal stage of life can be difficult to navigate, but Richard Eisenberg argues for a different outlook: “Unretirement.” Instead of endless free time and leisure, this approach encourages finding a meaningful purpose in retirement, and to create a plan that lends itself to a structured life. This could mean finding part-time work, volunteering, mentoring, travel, or time with family and friends. Our upcoming masterclass, “Unretirement” Conversations and Toolkit: A Masterclass With Richard Eisenberg, will explore how to harness the freedom that comes with retirement to create a fulfilling “Unretirement.”

Read on below for our Q&A with Richard Eisenberg about what you can expect from his masterclass.

What can students expect from the “Unretirement Conversations” master class?

RE: Students can expect to learn how retirement is being redefined these days as “unretirement,” sometimes called “semi-retirement.” The class will offer advice and insights on preparing for unretirement, dealing with the challenges of unretirement and reveling in the joys of unretirement. I’ll talk about my unretirement experience in the first year after leaving my full-time job as the Managing Editor of the PBS website for people 50+, Next Avenue, and will interview guests who are experts on retirement or have found their own path to unretirement.

How do you define “unretirement?”

RE: For me, “unretirement” means not living the traditional definition of no work/all leisure retirement. Instead, it’s about working or volunteering part-time in retirement when you want, as much as you want and with whom you want. Unretirement lets you use the rest of your newfound free time doing things such as: mentoring, catching up with friends and family, traveling, taking classes, pursuing passions and trying new things (giving yourself permission to fail).

How can this class help those in a career transition period in their life?

RE: This class will advise people who are either getting close to ending full-time work or who already have and help them succeed in the new, sometimes tricky, transition of unretirement. It will discuss the psychological aspects of unretirement (“Who am I now?), the financial aspects (“Can I afford to unretire? When?”) and what employers and policymakers could do to make unretirement more possible and more promising. Readings will include “Unretirement” by Chris Farrell, “Independence Day” by Steve Lopez, “Win the Retirement Game” by Joe Casey, “Roar” by Michael Clinton, “Retirement Stepping Stones” by Tony Hixon and “Retirement and Its Discontents” by Michelle Pannor Silver; my hope is to interview some of those authors during our classes so students can hear from them directly.

What initial advice do you give people forging their way in unretirement?

RE: My initial advice for unretiring is to think seriously before you retire about what you want to retire “to,” because one key to a successful unretirement is finding meaning and purpose, sometimes known by the Japanese word: “ikigai.” Many people fail to take this step and then find themselves thrust into retirement without considering how they’ll spend their time. Often, unretirement may last 20 to 30 years, so preparing for it — and then changing course when necessary — is vitally important.

Why were you inspired to teach this class?

RE: I was inspired to teach this class because during my decades writing, editing and podcasting about retirement, personal finances, aging and older workers for media outlets from Money to Next Avenue, I have often heard about the problems some people encounter transitioning to retirement. Over the past year, I’ve been wrestling with life in unretirement myself, mostly feeling quite happy about how things have gone, including having the opportunity to be the Digital Media Strategies Director for the NYU Summer Publishing Institute in 2022 and 2023. I thought this class could help students avoid, or deal with, unretirement challenges so they, too, will find fulfillment in this new stage of life.

Visit the Academy of Lifelong Learning website to explore all upcoming course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.

A History of Interiors: An Interview with Interior Designer Ana Luchangco

February 23, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Look around your room, what do you see? Interior environments and architecture can offer us a glimpse into history and insight on the evolution of design. In A History of Interiors: From Classical to Contemporary Design taught by Ana Luchangco, you will explore these themes and more. Luchangco is the owner of the interior design practice InSpace NY Design, and has worked on interior design for the St Regis Hotel, Vera Wang, Halekulani Hotel, Giorgio Armani, Neiman Marcus, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and other high-end residential projects.

In this course you will study legendary interior designers such as Charlotte Perriand and Zaha Hadid. You will also have the chance to hear from, Sheila Bridges—named America’s Best Interior Designer by Time magazine and CNN— who will be visiting the class.

Read on below for our Q&A with Luchangco and find out what you can expect from her class.

Mid-Century Modern Interiors by Ana Luchangco of InSpace NY Design; Photography by Michel Arnaud; Architecture by OMA

What can students expect from A History of Interiors class?

AL: A History of Interiors is a documentary or a time-travel of sorts, a journey and exploration of interior environments, art, and architecture. It’s hopefully an interesting and engaging take, a “Da Vinci Code” of Interior Design if I may, reflecting on the political and religious transformations that influence interiors and the so-called design limitations on how they developed into the solutions and innovations of today.

Classic Interiors by Ana Luchangco of InSpace NY Design; Photography by Michel Arnaud

What inspired you to teach this course?

AL: Growing up in the Philippines I was a rather curious kid – always drawing, creating materials, designing objects that led me to formally train as an interior designer. I believe design in any form requires appreciating the truly great works and hardships of the past – the invention of the light, the engineering of the arch, the development of walkable cities and how architecture emerged as a signifier of power and religion. More importantly, included in this class are some of the innovative works of women, who may be lesser known than their counterparts.

What can the evolution of interior design teach us about history and culture?

AL: Historical preservation is a living relic of the past, a testimony of a country’s long and obscure history. Impeccable art, for example, Church art, is part of our artistic legacy. Architecture tells our story, our heritage — because it has withstood time itself. What we learn from our own history, however, is a highly personal idiom.

Contemporary Interiors by Ana Luchangco of InSpace NY Design; Photography by Michel Arnaud

How has your interior design practice influenced how you teach this class?

AL: The success of a project is the same as a class – a lot depends on the quality of the relationship. I find it very encouraging whenever I ask students, for example, to introduce an interior that speaks to them. It’s a revelation for both a good educator and a good student how much they can learn from each other.

Modern Minimalist Interiors by Ana Luchangco of InSpace NY Design; Photography by Michel Arnaud

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this subject?

AL: Design for as long as it is a personal or an authentic self-expression cannot be wrong. I hope that by learning about our past, we can look forward to redefining beauty through diversity that is more unique and more inclusive.

Visit the Academy of Lifelong Learning website to explore all upcoming course offerings in the humanities and global affairs as well as participate in events and clubs.

Bias In American Media: An Interview with Journalist Cathy Garrard

February 15, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

How do you know if the article you’re reading has its facts straight? This is the central question that inspired Cathy Garrard’s class, Bias in American Media. Garrard is a journalist with over 25 years of experience and is currently a senior editor at Hearst Magazines. In Garrard’s course students will learn how to become savvy consumers of news as well as thoughtful editors. Read our interview with Garrard below!

What can students expect from the Bias in American Media class?

CG: I’m coming at this media literacy course from two different directions. It’s essential to learn how to recognize balanced, well-reported news stories, but it’s equally important to understand how your own personal bias impacts how you interpret the news you read. In many cases, personal bias has a major impact on the news outlets you regularly follow, which leads to continued left-side/right-side divisions in American society.

What inspired you to teach this course?

CG: When I first started teaching Fact-Checking for Accuracy in Spring 2019, I added a media literacy element in the form of a weekly reading assignment. I asked students to read the same news story across three different websites with differing political bias, using Allsides.com as a gauge. The students love it and learn so much—as do I!—so it seemed clear that an entire course could and should be taught on the subject.

Why do you think it’s important to not only be a savvy consumer but also a thoughtful editor of the news?

CG: When people understand how to spot the difference between accurate reporting and misleading or untruthful news, you can help stop the rampant spread of misinformation. People thoughtlessly share inaccurate information all the time both on social media and in casual conversations. If you want to work in the media industry, you need to understand how to present information in the most accurate, informative way possible. Otherwise, you’re part of the problem.

How has your experience as a journalist informed how you teach this subject?

CG: I got my first fact-checking gig in the 90s. Back then, “fact-checking” was not a household term. It was mainly done by magazine publishers, and most readers weren’t even aware it was happening. My colleagues and I used to joke that we were “the janitors of truth.” A description that I would happily put on my tombstone, may I add. But content certainty has been part of my journalistic DNA since the very beginning of my career. If you can’t believe what you read, why bother?

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this class?

CG: Quite honestly, teaching media literacy skills is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my career. I’ve had students tell me that they were able to diffuse tensions at the Thanksgiving dinner table with the tools they learned in the class. Or that they started following the news again because they’re less intimidated by it. To have that kind of positive impact in people’s lives is extremely meaningful to me.

Bias in American Media starts February 28^th, sign up here.

Advanced Screenwriting: An Interview with Script Writer Jason Greiff

February 8, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Are you an aspiring screenwriter looking to polish a draft, complete a script, or develop new material? In Advanced Screenwriting, students will be guided by faculty, Jason Greiff, an experienced screenwriter who has written for Universal and Marc Platt Productions. Read on below for our interview with Greiff about the class and why it could be a good fit for you!

What can students expect from the Advanced Screenwriting class?

JG: A fun time. I try my best to make the class an enjoyable experience for students who already know the fundamentals of scriptwriting and now want to “play” with the tools of the trade. The course is for those looking to complete a script, revise a script, or a start new script. In its online format (i.e., not remote/zoom), students can log into the course on their own schedule throughout the week. We handle the material via topic threads. There’s a workshop thread where students post work and get feedback from classmates and instructor, and there are also ongoing discussion threads (writing exercises, Q&A, etc.) throughout each class week. I’m not sure if it’s just been luck or if I have anything to do with it, but I’ve been teaching this class for years and it always has students who are supportive of each other.

What inspired you to teach this course?

JG: Students who took the Beginning Screenwriting class and wanted a follow up course. Also, I wanted to have more room for feedback. One of the challenges of an advanced workshop class that meets in real time for, say, 2 hours and 20 minutes (a typical in-person class), is time management. So many writers wanting feedback on their work, so little time each class… In the asynchronous online format that runs 24/7, we don’t have this issue, so writers can submit a great amount of work and get a great amount of feedback each week (without the pressure of beating the “class bell”).

What are some of the most common challenges when it comes to completing a script? How does this course help overcome those challenges?

JG: Maintaining the drive to make it to fade out/the end. When we’re writing on our own — especially if we’re not being paid to write something — it’s difficult to be self-disciplined and stay on track. If no one is expecting you to submit pages by a particular date, then it’s very easy to put writing off for tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. While a writer absolutely does not need to take a class to write a script, it sure helps to have deadlines. A class like this provides those deadlines as there is a workshop schedule and weekly exercises. A class like this also provides a small community of folks with the same goal and interests. It’s easier to meet goals when you have a supportive group encouraging you and cheering you on.

What advice would you give to aspiring screenwriters?

JG: Always be reading scripts. Put down the “how to” books and pick up produced scripts (just pick up your iPad and then Google “scripts pdf” and you’ll find thousands of scripts). Also, there are lots of resources out there to help you along, from podcasts hosted by working scriptwriters to interviews with scriptwriter on YouTube. And while doing all this, always be writing. Set a schedule and get at least 20 minutes a day of writing.

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this class?

JG: Health insurance. No, I joke. It is an easy question because the answer is without doubt the students. It’s cliché, I know, but there truly is nothing more rewarding than when students are appreciative for having had a positive experience in the class. It’s also extra rewarding when students go on to have success with their work. As a teacher, I’ve been fortunate in this area, with past students having gone on to sell and make movies and television shows with all the big studios, networks, platforms, etc. (It’s also great when successful students come back to share their experiences with my current classes.)

Advanced Screenwriting starts February 27. Register here.

Writing About Health and Beauty: An Interview with Journalist Estelle Erasmus

February 3, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Health and beauty is an expanding genre of writing that editors are hungry for. How do you craft a compelling service journalism piece, personal essay, or reported feature on this topic? In Estelle Erasmus’ course Writing About Health and Beauty, you can learn the ins and outs of finding your story, reporting, and pitching on this subject. Erasmus is an award-winning journalist and writing coach who has published extensively in this genre. Read on below for our Q&A with Erasmus to learn more about the eight-week course!

What can students expect from the Writing about Health and Beauty course?

EE: Health and beauty writing is a growing area in publishing, covering a wide range of topics from chronic illness, mental health, and preventative strategies to beauty routines and new therapies and products. In this eight-week course, I offer strategies, tips, and tricks on how to brainstorm the next big topic, pitch to online and print publications, and research and find credible experts to build your story from the ground up. I will work directly with students on pitches, essays and articles, and brainstorm topics. During the course, you will receive recorded video interviews from editors who cover health with insight and advice on submitting, and new interviews are added each semester. Students will also have the opportunity to interview and build connections with working experts in the health and beauty field. Students will leave class with one service piece, ready-to-publish personal essay, or hybrid essay/reported piece on health or beauty. Previous participants have published articles and essays generated in class in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Next Avenue, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Daily News, Wired, GH, and more. I always say editors are in the field searching for writers with good stories. Why not let that writer be you?

How would you define this genre of writing? What does it encompass?

EE: This is such a wide-reaching genre of writing. It encompasses psychology, self-esteem, mental health, physical, emotional, medical, and even spiritual health issues, as well as specific diseases, chronic issues, alternative and covering every beauty and health remedy available, including cosmetic surgery, from a service-oriented, reported journalistic or anecdotal perspective.

My focus is mainly on health writing because it is a burgeoning field for writing opportunities, including in the parenting and aging space, but many times the editors who cover beauty also cover health, so it is very much a linked subject.

Why do you think writing about health and beauty is compelling?

EE: Because everyone is interested in maintaining optimum health, and let’s face it we are a society where packaging is important and remaining healthy showing our best selves in the area of visual mediums like television, TikTok and Instagram only helps us advance in our careers.

Also, when publications make staff and space cuts, it seems that one safe area is the health space, because with a growing older population, health is on the frontline of every person’s thoughts.

How has this genre shaped your career as a journalist and storyteller?

EE: I started my career in publishing as Associate Beauty Editor, writing about health and beauty for Woman’s World magazine, and co-authored a beauty book with a dermatologist. I went on to cover fitness, mind/body therapies as a columnist and contributor for First for Women, a columnist for New Body, and Let’s Live, and have contributed health and beauty articles to over 100 publications. I also launched the American Breast Cancer Guide for women with or at high risk for breast cancer, and I launched a magazine that covered health and cosmetic surgery. Once I had my daughter, I also covered health and mental health from a parenting perspective for GH, Parents.com, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and more. I loved telling stories about people in the health space, experts, and anecdotal, too, and enjoy teaching my students how to approach those kinds of stories, as well, and cover more in the Freelance Writing Direct podcast and in my book WRITING THAT GETS NOTICED: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published, out from New World Library in June, available now for pre-order. And sign up for my newsletter to get publishing advice and opportunities.

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this course?

EE: The journalism skills I teach in this course are complementary to any other journalism program or master’s program at NYU or another university. I enjoy continually evolving my classes, and many of my students take my courses over and over. I have changed the syllabus to encompass more service journalism, interviewing experts (with actual experts available for interviews), new editor interviews in the space — since editors change positions often.

I’ve focused on increasing the engagement in my online forums, not just between myself and the students (which has always been active), but between the students themselves. Many of my students have stayed connected and even formed writing groups out of the comradery they’ve found in my classes.

Also I have a free Editor-on-Call webinar in collaboration with NYU on March 2 from 12:30-1:30 pm EDT in conversation with Julia Calderone, Senior, Editor Well for the New York Times (who covers health and science). This is the link to get your spot. I hope to see many of you there and in my class.

Seeing the World Through Foreign Film: An Interview with Film Instructor Roberta Seret-Bayer

January 24, 2023 by Mormei Zanke

Films can be transportive. Foreign films in particular can take you to other parts of the world and deepen your understanding of different cultures and global issues. The NYU SPS Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) course, Global Hotspots Through Foreign Film, will allow you to delve into rich foreign films from diverse cultures. This class begins February 23^rd, and will be taught by adjunct instructor, Roberta Seret-Bayer. Seret-Bayer is the Director of Advanced English and Film at the United Nations for the Hospitality Committee and Founder of the NGO at the UN, International Cinema Education. She’s the author of World Affairs in Foreign Film, and her fiction series Transylvanian Trilogy.

Read on below for our interview with Seret-Bayer and learn more about her course!

What can students expect from the global hotspots through foreign film class?

RS: Foreign film entertains, educates and inspires. Each film we view is made in another country, using history and politics as the factual background and fiction for the storyline. Fact and fiction blend together to take the viewer to a different culture. Discussing them in class opens our mind and allows us to share thoughts and learn from others.

How did you curate the film list for the course? Which films will be in the curriculum?

RS: Following foreign events and matching a film from a global hotspot is a passion and puzzle for me. International filmmakers tend to share my interest and use the current events of their country as their film’s infrastructure. Directors today of global cinema are journalists. They use cinema as their tool to show what is happening in their country and make their viewers around the world aware of their country. Many of these films win prizes at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto. Watching these films allows us the pleasure of travelling without needing a passport or visa. And we can enter a country through the screen that might be prohibitive to us.

This Spring semester we will travel all over the world to Global Hotspots by using cinema as our vehicle. The list is exciting of our 8 films from 8 different countries:

“Lydia Tar/ Tar” (Germany/ USA)

“Persepolis” (Iran)

“Olga” (Ukraine)

“Triangle of Sadness” (Sweden)

“Tsotsi” (South Africa)

“Bardo “(Mexico)

“Argentina” 1985 (Argentina)

“The Fencer” (Estonia)

What can foreign films teach us about geopolitics and cultures around the world?

RS: The world is very much with us. The internet, social media and television have made global events come closer and faster to us. What happens in Ukraine or China in the morning becomes part of our awareness in the afternoon and evening. The foreign films from our class give us the factual background via storyline and visuals. This helps us better understand the country’s culture and today’s current events. For each film, I give my students a packet of handouts that includes a map of the film’s host country, historical and political background, and a summary of the film and analysis. The literature reinforces the visual and at the end of our 2-hour class, we understand better the film as well as the country’s geo-politics.

How has your experience at the U.N. influenced how you teach film?

RS: I have the privilege through my NGO at the United Nations, International Cinema Education, to teach diplomats and their families ESL by using foreign films. The captions help increase their vocabulary and our discussions help improve their fluency in speaking English. Often, I have a student from the host country of the film, and we get first-hand commentaries and explanations. In this way, we learn some hidden secrets. These are the films that I share and screen for my NYU students, and I include this first-hand, inside information.

What do you find most rewarding about teaching this class?

RS: EVERYTHING! I am the one who learns the most. I see each film 2 or 3 times as I prepare it for my class, and that allows me to delve deeper and concentrate on details. I also value our discussions. We form a community of friends in our class that extends outside the classroom. This coming together offers us an ease in communicating to each other in class and sharing what we think. What could be more exciting than to use cinema as a vehicle to learn and enjoy at the same time? And the films take us to countries we may have seen in the past or on our wish list to visit.

Five African Nobel Laureates: A Discussion with Nicholas Birns

December 13, 2022 by Mormei Zanke

The Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to several authors in English from sub-Saharan Africa—including Abdulrazak Gurnah, Doris Lessing, J. M. Coetzee, Wolé Soyinka, and Naguib Mahfouz. How do these writers resist colonial oppression in their work? The NYU SPS PALA course, Five African Nobel Laureates, will examine this question as well as uncover some of the problems and ironies of writing the nation, and engage with the aesthetics of contemporary narrative. Adjunct instructor Nicholas Birns will be teaching the course, which starts on March 14, 2023. We had the chance to talk to Birns about the seminal work of each of these authors, and why he feels this literature course is important.

Read on below for Birns’ course overview.

Why do you feel this literature course is important to teach?

NB: There are still not too many courses in literature departments specifically on African literature, in general, as opposed to one or two African novels being put in a world literature seminar. The award of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah presented an opportunity to develop a course on African Nobel Laureates that would be a way to focus on the entire body of African fiction as well as to further diversify and decolonize the literature curriculum. People in the United States, still know far too little about Africa, and reading these books is a way for us to learn more.

What is notable about each Laureate’s work?

Abdelrazak Gurnah

NB: Abdelrazak Gurnah has been living in Britain for many years, where he taught as a literature professor, but is ultimately from the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is now part of the nation of Tanzania, but have an independent history from the mainland, formerly Tanganyika, having far more Arab and Middle Eastern influence. Gurnah both excavates this distinct history and, in novels such as Gravel Heart, explores what it is to live in exile from it, and his work is set equally in the homeland and diaspora. Even when he deals, as he often does and does incisively, with personal or emotional relationships, it is always against this cultural background.

Doris Lessing

NB: Doris Lessing is famous as a writer of feminist fiction, such as The Golden Notebook, and speculative fiction, such as her Canopus in Argos series. But she started out as a writer about white settler colonialism in Southern Africa using predominantly social-realist and psychological modes. She grew up in what is now Zimbabwe and her first six novels are partially or entirely set there. We study her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, which is a searing portrait of a marriage gone wrong but also an examination of what it is to be a white person in Africa. At once a crime novel and a portrait of people in a landscape, Lessing’s first novel is a compressed nightmare of squandered possibility.

J.M. Coetzee

NB: J. M. Coetzee became known as a writer who excavated the injustices of the apartheid system in South Africa. In his later work, he has explored issues such as displacement, animal rights, contemporary global capitalism, and how a writer can meaningfully speak in a way that is both creative and socially responsible. Disgrace is a hinge book between those two phases. Its protagonist, David Lurie, is an academic who loses his job after a disastrous love affair with a student and then goes out to the South African countryside to live with his adult daughter. When the two are victims of a violent crime, the protagonist finds that he has to adjust to the new realities of a decolonized Africa, and to take the true measure of himself as a person. That was a short novel, it is one of the texts I have taught that is most generative of discussion; every student has something to say about it, and very few will remain unaffected by its power.

Wolé Soyinka

NB: Soyinka has been a presence on the Nigerian literary scene almost as long as his country has been independent. His early poem “Telephone Conversation” memorably captures the racism facing an African student in London, and his plays, especially Death of the King’s Horsemen, and memoirs have been acclaimed worldwide. He is perhaps less famous as a novelist, but his recent novel (published at the age of 87!) Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, shows he is supremely accomplished in that form as well. This book is a scalding satire of corruption in contemporary Africa which also offers some hope that people will continue to strive for honor and dignity. It is a book as funny as it is prophetic.

Naguib Mahfouz

NB: Mahfouz was the great novelist of modern Egypt and especially the city of Cairo. But early in his career he also wrote some novels about ancient Egypt which I think broadened his sense of how people, cultures, and communities interrelate. We study his short novel Midaq Alley, in which the entire neighborhood the book depicts acts as a sort of protagonist. Midaq Alley as a community is a compassionate place which takes in outcasts and strangers, but also is a poor and marginal ghetto that some young people will pay any price to leave. Mahfouz deftly juxtaposes his ensemble of characters with the background of changing times in an Egypt on the verge of true national independence to bring a particular place vividly alive.

What do you hope students will take away from this course?

NB: A sense that African writers participate both in the literary cultures, in their nations and regions, but also in world literature. Something I have emphasized is that these writers are very critical of European colonization, but also do not shrink from challenging their own governments, and those in power in the postcolonial situation; this is particularly true of Soyinka and Gurnah. The writer is not a cheerleader for a given political configuration but an independent voice of conscience who can assume a long-term ethical perspective. There is no set of traits that define an African novel, but we see in this course several different visions which will give the student a picture of the building blocks of contemporary African literature.

PALA/CE Faculty News

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