Co-Editors MB and JR on the latest issues of the journal.
Dear Readers:
We are delighted to share the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Issues of Pedagogy in Praxis. This journal was founded five years ago at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City, and it was intended to be a space for the professors at Baruch College’s First-Year Writing Program to engage in meaningful exchanges about the practice of teaching when physical meetings had become impossible. The journal has evolved since then, and it serves as a place for the practical sharing of ideas and theoretical explorations of pedagogy-related issues and topics.
Our Fall 2024 issue features work by Eugene Marlow, Iuri Moscardi, Nathan Nikolic, Isabel Ortiz, and Stephanie Ramlogan; our Spring 2025 issue features interviews with Ghenwa Antonios and Alexander Pau Orejuela; Ju Ly Ban; Coco Fitterman and Alex Hall; Rasheed Hinds; and Safia Jama. This issue includes Part II of Nathan Nikolic’s two-part article.
As part of our Spring 2025 issue of Pedagogy in Praxis, we present a series of conversations with Graduate Teaching Fellows and seasoned faculty, reflecting on the evolving landscape of pedagogy in higher education. These interviews explore diverse approaches to teaching, critical engagement, and the lived experience of navigating the classroom as both scholars and educators. Conducted over Zoom, the discussions have been transcribed and edited for clarity and focus, while preserving the texture and nuance of each speaker’s voice.
As co-editors, we had the opportunity to approach the challenges of running a journal together. We write this letter to testify to the spirit of collaboration, friendship, support, and experimentation behind the scenes. We loved conducting interviews in the spring; interviews felt especially meaningful in light of the journal’s original mission—to combat isolation and to generate a thoughtful record of our colleagues’ work at a time that still feels tumultuous and uncertain. It can be difficult to find moments to celebrate, connect, and gather, and our editorial work on gave us a chance to do all of the above.
We are delighted that our contributors and interviewees are adjuncts, teaching fellows, and long-time faculty with in-depth, diverse experience and expertise. We learned so much from every article and interview. What began as interview plans turned into dialogue; each interview we hosted turned into conversations that went far over the allotted time, confirming that these spaces in academia are much-needed. We prioritized having longer conversations that we would then edit together instead of cutting conversations short; even though this entailed more editorial work, we felt it was valuable work. Each step of the interview process entailed leaps of faith–we began by generating questions, creating interview timeframes, reaching out, scheduling, and discussing our vision. But each interview took on a life of its own, and we adjusted our processes accordingly with the mission of documenting our colleagues’ labor.
Everyone we interviewed has in-depth teaching experience that they are passionate about sharing, and we talked with our interviewees at length about the changing student landscape post-pandemic in New York. Folks who have been teaching at Baruch for a long time described the differences they’re observing in students’ learning and engagement with writing and literature. Students and instructors alike are being challenged to rethink the vision of a university classroom–what it looks like, and how it is run within the context of a chaotic political landscape, rapidly evolving writing technology, and the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Our discussions highlighted just how awesome Baruch instructors and students are—and how easy it could be for this individual and collective labor to go unnoticed. We hope that this record helps advocate for better wages. We hope the journal will continue to provide valuable knowledge and resources, and we encourage future editors to conduct interviews with instructors and students.
We offer our sincere thanks to our awesome mentors and fellowship advisors, Stephanie Hershinow, Laura Kolb, and Brooke Schreiber, for encouraging us to think creatively and expansively about our work on the journal, and for supporting our launch party, “PIZZA + PRAXIS!” which was held in the English Department Lounge on May 1 in celebration of our wonderful teachers and recent journal issues. We are also deeply thankful to Jason Arty, Kamal Belmihoub, Allison Deutermann, Claudye James, Emma King, Dan Libertz, and Molly Mosher—thank you so much for supporting our work on Pedagogy in Praxis in numerous ways. WE LITERALLY LOVE YOU ALL.
Even though we are irreplaceable and have changed the lives of literally everyone we interacted with in ways that will continue to have a positive impact for centuries to come, we recognize that our time is coming to a close, and want to say: byeeeeeeeeeeeee for now!
With love,
Maddie and Joe