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Pifer, Matthew, PhD

Matthew Pifer, PhD
Professor and Coordinator of the Writing Center College of Science and Humanities
Contact: Husson University
1 College Circle Bangor, Maine 04401
piferm@husson.edu
Phone: 207.941.7897
Room: 222 Beardsley Meeting House

Biography

Matt received his BA in English from Alma College, where he also played football and minored in biology. After college, he worked for two years as a technical and professional writer for the mortgage division of NBD Bank in Detroit, Michigan. Interested in the use of language, and its application within the corporate context, Matt decided to attend graduate school to pursue his master's and, eventually, doctoral degrees in English. At the University of Oklahoma, he studied American literatures (the plural usage is intentional) and creative writing, completing a creative master's thesis titled, "Thumbing through Detroit", which is a collection of short fiction and poetry. For the next five years, while completing his PhD course work in composition and 19th and 20th century American Literatures, Matt taught first-year composition and technical communication. These courses added depth to his training as a generalist, and prepared him for the variety of teaching opportunities he enjoys at Husson. Having taken his degree, Matt accepted a professorship at Lake Superior State University, teaching technical communication, world literature, Native American literatures, and creative writing. Looking for a change, he moved to Maine and accepted a professorship at Husson. At Husson, he teaches technical and professional communication, a variety of literature courses, creative writing, and first-year composition.

In addition to following a specific career path, I would suggest to a first-year student that she balance her ambition with a selection of course from other disciplines, pursuing, in this way, her curiosities and eccentricities. A college education should prepare a student to make informed decisions about a variety of important political and social issues; it should prepare her to be an active participant in political and cultural debates rather than passively accepting the opinions of others. Overall, I would suggest that a student never let herself be bored, never be swayed by the apathy of others.