Suzanne Verderber

Suzanne Verderber is a Professor in the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute. Her interdisciplinary work bridges literature, cinema, philosophy, art history, and religion, with a focus on medieval France, modernist literature, and the intersection of psychoanalytic theory (Freud/Lacan) with Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, and Guattari. She explores how historical and contemporary forces shape human subjectivity amid economic, technological, political, and ecological crises.

As an editor and translator from French to English, she balances scholarly work with creative writing ambitions in fiction and journalism. At Pratt, she emphasizes curriculum development and outcomes assessment, valuing how scholarship enhances student creativity. Her teaching philosophy prioritizes intellectual depth over performative knowledge, encapsulated in her motto: 'it is better to be smart than sound smart.'