Suzanne Maria Menghraj joined NYU's faculty in 2007. She teaches courses in writing and arts criticism, and recently served as chair of the Global Liberal Studies Critical Creative Production concentration and faculty co-chair of the Liberal Studies Steering Committee. She is a former contributing writer for Guernica, a journal of global arts and politics. Her recent work has appeared in Punctuate, Writing on the Edge, and Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. Prior to joining NYU’s faculty, she taught at Columbia University and served as director of Columbia’s Writing Center and assistant director of its Undergraduate Writing Program. Earlier in her career, she worked in the national consulting division of the Vera Institute of Justice. She has since collaborated with several justice institutions, as well as such civic and arts organizations as the Center for Urban Pedagogy, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Rather than require students to achieve and express certainty, Suzanne’s courses are designed to help them manage uncertainty and become more attuned to the complexities of art, environment, reading, and writing within and across cultural and other boundaries. Students are encouraged to use writing and other means of expression to inventively describe and explore compelling problems, questions, and mysteries, and to present nuanced ways of thinking about cultural and social phenomena.