Joseph Taglienti: A Perfect Fit

by Cecil Harris

When choosing a college, Joseph Taglienti knew he did not want to be in an academic environment where classes were held in large lecture halls and taught by professors he might never truly know.

Adelphi University has offered a richer learning experience for Mr. Taglienti, and has proved to be a perfect fit for the humanities major from East Meadow, New York.

“Adelphi certainly is preferable to other schools I considered, because at Adelphi I could form relationships with my fellow students and professors,” he said. “As an undergraduate at Adelphi, I feel a kind of intimacy that you would expect from a graduate program. Yet, even though the class sizes are small, I’m meeting new people constantly and relating to people who share the same interests as I do.”

Eloquent and serious-minded, Mr. Taglienti has flourished in Adelphi’s Honors College while pursuing his career aspirations to teach literary theory.

“I’ve always been a reader,” said Mr. Taglienti, who lists Henry James, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky and the poets of the Harlem Renaissance as among his preferred writers. “The Honors College offers courses on the great books and courses that are more social scientific but also speak to a humanistic discipline. Courses on Dr. Sigmund Freud, for example. One of the ways I really found myself was through reading. I read creatively and write creatively. I come to truth through literature. I’m drawn to expressions of art that really help us make sense of a very chaotic world.”

In April 2014, Mr. Taglienti earned first prize for a poster and accompanying paper he presented at Adelphi’s research conference for the arts and humanities. Craig Carson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences, has mentored Mr. Taglienti. Dr. Carson received an Adelphi Teaching Excellence Award in May 2014.

“Professor Carson introduced me to the schools of literary theory,” Mr. Taglienti said. “Through him, I’ve been exposed to so many things that I would not otherwise have been exposed to. He has helped to guide my research and fine-tune my skills. He’s honest with me when he thinks I’m being too ambitious or not ambitious enough. It’s important to have that kind of relationship with a professor. At a larger university, unless I had made an attempt to visit Professor Carson during office hours, it’s not likely that I would have got to know him.”

Mr. Taglienti said he hopes to be accepted into the rhetoric program at the University of California at Berkeley, pursue a Ph.D. and then teach literary theory. He believes other students interested in a similar career path would be wise to choose Adelphi.

“Adelphi gives undergraduates a lot of responsibility and trusts them with knowledge,” he said. “Adelphi allows students like myself to taste their dreams before they are actually on the track to pursue them.”