Faculty Focus

Photo: Assistant Professor of Psychology Maryam Jernigan-Noesi

Mentoring the Next Generation

According to her father, Maryam Jernigan-Noesi declared at the age of 4 she wanted to be a doctor.

“I had no idea which kind,” she admits. “But I had a plan all along,”

Unlike many children who make declarations at a young age, Jernigan-Noesi stuck with it. As she grew up and learned more about psychology, she decided to pursue a doctorate in the field. She credits her father for influencing her in taking that career direction.

“My father is a Vietnam veteran who often advocated for the mental and other health benefits of Black veterans,” she says. “I grew up hearing him talk about group settings that offered support for those who served in war. I wanted to help people in that way.”

Jernigan-Noesi attended Fisk University for her undergraduate studies, received a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University and then returned to her home state of Massachusetts to do her doctoral work at Boston College in 2003. She completed prestigious internships and fellowships at Boston Medical Center and Harvard and Yale medical schools.

During this period, she discovered that along with treating patients and conducting research, she also enjoyed teaching.

“Teaching sort of just fell into my lap and wouldn’t move,” jokes Jernigan-Noesi, who worked as a teaching assistant during her doctoral studies and taught behavioral health to medical students as a fellow. When she later established a clinical practice, she also had teaching posts at Yale University and Quinnipiac University.

In 2017, Jernigan-Noesi and her husband relocated to Atlanta from Connecticut with their young son. In 2018, she accepted a job as a visiting professor at Agnes Scott College.

She soon became an assistant professor of psychology and now teaches both introductory and upper-level psychology classes at the college. She believes that because she is still a practicing clinical psychologist, she can bring a deeper level of understanding to her students.

“There is a difference between theory and practice,” she says. “I was frustrated as an undergraduate student. I heard one thing in class, but I saw another in a practical setting. Since I have knowledge in both, I can bring my practical experiences into my class and apply them to what my students are studying. It’s not just theory; I can use real examples.”

Jernigan-Noesi also strives to enhance her students’ experience by tailoring the class to their interests. Two of the first things she asks are: “What do you hope to get out of this class? How will you use it in your post-Agnes Scott professional goals?” Even in a class of up to 30 students, she tries to connect the material to their future goals. She also involves students in her research, including them in her projects and encouraging them to take on projects of their own.

She studies the influences of race and culture on mental and physical health treatment and outcomes, namely understanding how individual human experiences are connected to an individual’s emotional and physical well-being. Lately, her research has focused on racial trauma — how incidents of racism can affect mental health — and NPR and other prominent media outlets have featured her work.

Through sharing her knowledge and experience, she believes she is mentoring the next generation.

“I have a passion for teaching and a passion for psychology,” she says. “I hope my students can feed off of my energy and see all of the possibilities in this field. I’d like to think I am helping to foster and educate future researchers and clinical providers.”

The Show Must Go On

It can be hard to teach any class remotely during the pandemic, but some lend themselves to online learning better than others. Theatre is not necessarily one of them. Yet Toby Emert, professor of theatre at Agnes Scott

His students are learning, collaborating and providing feedback through Zoom. Instead of working in the labs and theatre spaces on campus, they are developing visual narratives using PowerPoint. In-person performances are also being delivered via the Zoom platform.

Professor of Theatre Toby Emert

Photo: Tom Meyer

In the fall semester Emert taught two classes: Digital Storytelling and Performance Approaches to Literature for Children and Young Adults.

In one of the projects for digital storytelling — the one-image story — Emert’s students chose a photograph and created a story around it, incorporating narrative and music. In another assignment, they wrote poems and then translated them visually using filmmaking tools and techniques.

“These students have been consuming digital media for a long time,” he says, “so they are good at understanding visuals. Now, I’m teaching them how to add reflection.”

Emert also shares his expertise in digital storytelling with high school English teachers, namely in helping them teach Shakespeare. In 2017, he conducted a weeklong workshop for Georgia teachers that was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. With a recently awarded grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has expanded the workshop into a two-week summer institute for 25 teachers from across the country.

“Shakespeare is taught in most high schools,” he says. “Digital storytelling is something that teachers can use to help students learn about his plays in a fun and interesting way.”

Teachers choose a Shakespeare play and create a 300-word story about some aspect using images and narrative. This summer’s institute, titled “Shakespeare and Digital Storytelling,” will be held virtually and focus on the influence of folktales and fairy tales on selected Shakespeare plays.

Emert, who has been teaching at Agnes Scott for 17 years, once thought he wanted to be an actor. After graduating with degrees in English and theatre — what he calls his “twin interests” — he taught middle school drama and English while studying acting at a professional studio. But he discovered something along the way.

“I loved the process of creating a character and rehearsing, but I was less in love with the performance aspect,” he says.

Instead of pursing acting, he earned his Ph.D. in English education from the University of Virginia and chose a career in academia. Through the years, he has studied the work and practice of Augusto Boal, a Brazilian theatre practitioner and political activist best known for his methodology in Theatre of the Oppressed. Emert uses these methods in his Theatre for Social Change class in which students create forum plays that focus on a social issue important to the community and perform in front of an audience twice. During the second performance, audience members can say “stop,” and go onstage and replace the protagonist. The audience members can change the situation presented to enable a different outcome.

Like most performances, the plays his students create in that class this semester may not be performed for an in-person audience. But despite all the changes that he has had to make due to the pandemic, he still has the same goal: for his students to make a connection with what they are doing and what they are learning.

“I enjoy the intellectual and social challenges of teaching,” Emert says. “I want students to appreciate and engage with something they didn’t know they were interested in. I can’t make them love a poem or a play, but I can offer a process that helps them make a connection to it. That’s what keeps me teaching.”