Pamela
Cytrynbaum


Pamela Cytrynbaum teaches writing and multimedia storytelling at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. At Brandeis University she taught in American Studies, served as associate director of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and director of the Justice Brandeis Innocence Project. She taught courses in writing and in New Media Communications in the English Department at Oregon State University. She writes for NBC Universal in Woman on the Verge and is a former staff writer for The Chicago Tribune and The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Parent and The Oregonian.

Articles by Pamela

Turning Headlines into Impromptu Lessons

The explosion of news coverage over the controversial execution of Troy Davis in Georgia recently is a reminder that our students learn powerful lessons outside our classrooms. These events offer opportunities for lessons of context inside our classrooms.

Public School Integration Still ‘Best Goal’

When my daughter pulls hard on the heavy glass doors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory School and races upstairs into her fifth-grade classroom, she is living my dream.

Race Talk When Diversity Equals One

It happens in every class. We’re discussing a text, a publication, a current event, a poem. The content doesn’t matter. It’s the phrase that counts. A student comments and uses the phrase “African American” or even “black people.” The student is white. The reaction of the class – almost all white – is swift. As if choreographed, all eyes turn to the one student of color. The spotlight of eyes shines down and he or she blinks back as if staring into the sun. The teacher should use this moment to open a discussion.
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Illustration of person holding and looking at laptop.

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