Roseanne Gatto

Roseanne Gatto
Assistant Professor of Writing, Institute for Core Studies
First-Year Writing Program, Institute for Writing Studies
A.B.D. in Composition, Indiana University-Pennsylvania
gattor@stjohns.edu

A Greek of the fifth century B.C. lived in a polis—a civilized community the size of a small city but with the political autonomy of a state. In such a situation a youth would grow to manhood feeling his constant interrelatedness with the life and aims of his polis and knowing that the principal road to success was likely to lie in a political direction. The virtue, the arête, the human excellence that the youth would wish to develop for himself would be personal and political at once.

— Phillip Wheelwright

The problem is not changing people’s consciousness--or what’s in their heads--but the political, economic, institutional regime of the production of truth.

— Foucault

On teaching...

As a teacher, I look to the sophists pragmatically. Have we instilled this type of connectivity with our students? Where is their “interrelatedness” with their lives and the goals of our city/state/country/world? I’ve often wondered how students can become active participants in their education. Perhaps we should let them know they have a voice by asking them to speak, to create on their own terms. I believe that only when our students attain agency are they truly able to develop into wise, compassionate, thoughtful, autonomous citizens. Call to them to participate in the defining/investigating/deciphering of truth. Maybe if we looked at our students more sincerely as writers, as artists, maybe if we valued their cultures and listened to their voices, allowing the space for them to write about what is most meaningful to them, they would in turn become the leaders we are hoping for. It is here that I hear the charism of St. Vincent de Paul echo so strongly.

On writing/research...

My approach to interrogating my teaching philosophy has been influenced by both the theories and scholarship of expressivism and the praxis and philosophies of St. Vincent DePaul. First, my dissertation has allowed me to look critically and in-depth at the theories that support the pedagogy I bring to my classroom. For a semester-long project I call on students to reflect on their personal histories. Not only the history that has been written for them, but the narrative they have written for themselves. I ask them to reflect on the stories they have grown up with. The stories they intend on passing on. The stories they wish were never told. I ask them: what they are burning to tell the world? I look to expressivist rhetoricians to understand why this assignment is so important and meaningful to so many of students. I look to expressivism to recognize how I can be responsive to their needs as well as the needs of the University.

Second, my interaction with a number of service organizations, committees, and professional development programs within the University has informed my teaching in regards to the influence of the charism of St. Vincent de Paul. Most notably, it is my work with the Vincentian Mission Program that has enlightened my pedagogy in ways that would have been impossible prior to coming to St. John’s. Before my time with the Vincentian Mission Program and Campus Ministry, my prayer life was in a state of disconnect with my academic life. The time I spent with the cohort of the VMP as well as the students I have spent the last two summers serving alongside in Lourdes, France, has opened my eyes to the connections that were always available, although not visible, as a professor and member of the St. John’s community. I look to St. Vincent in my prayer now. I look to his mission when creating syllabi. I look to his example when I work with students, when I hear their stories. This is what guides my writing and research.