UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — What do you get when you mix nuanced journalism with a classroom full of college students? Assistant Teaching Professor Neda Toloui-Semnani, who began working at Penn State in August, is determined to find out.
Toloui-Semnani joined the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications after working for VICE News and contributing to The New York Times and The Washington Post. She earned a master’s degree in gender and social policy and an master of fine arts in nonfiction. She said she’s hoping to help students learn the basics of journalism and challenge and support them to strive for epic storytelling.
As a brand-new Pennsylvania resident, Toloui-Semnani said she feels a responsibility to tell the stories of the state, too.
“Pennsylvania reflects the country in so many ways because it’s such an intersection of history,” said Toloui-Semnani, who most recently lived in Brooklyn, New York, after growing up in Washington, D.C. “The country sort of started here, our government started here, but also our full-throttle entrance into modern capitalism started here.”
Along with the state, she said she’s also curious about campus and the community — from a couple of perspectives.
“There’s a version of [State College] that, as a journalist, I think there are a lot of stories that aren’t being told,” she said. “So, my role both as a journalist and as a professor is to understand where you are to the extent that you can, and be very willing to ask the questions nobody else is going to ask.”
Those thoughts are the base of Toloui-Semnani’s journalism career. She’s spent years telling human stories to bring a spotlight to news rooted in truth. Epic storytelling about the world’s injustices is at the foundation of Toloui-Semnani’s work, and she said believes it’s precisely what budding Bellisario College journalists need to learn before they enter the industry.
“In a newsroom, whether or not it shows up in your coverage, you’re talking, you’re pushing each other, and some of that has to end up in the classroom,” she said. “It’s just the question of how to do it and hold space for everybody.”
Along with teaching, Toloui-Semnani has written a book, “They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents” and is co-founder of Revolution Street Productions, a multimedia production and educational consulting company. She also works in partnership with global podcast company Kaleidoscope as story editor for an upcoming podcast series about deepfakes. It’s all a lot of work, but it’s the type of work Toloui-Semnani knows best.
“These are the stories I tend to be drawn to — really complicated stories that I think even in the darkness sort of highlight how people aren’t waiting,” she said while reminiscing on the strength of her feature subjects. “They’re trying to find solutions today, which I think is very exhausting, but it’s the work.”
This sentiment transfers into Toloui-Semnani’s podcasting and TV reporting classes, where she leans on good, honest journalism to grow the next generation of storytellers.
“I’m literally thinking about how I organize the physical space in the classroom to foster conversation because journalism can’t be in a vacuum,” she said.
When creative storytelling and nuanced journalism are hard to find, journalists who bring both to the forefront are diamonds who serve readers and tell stories well, she said. So, as she seeks answers about mixing nuanced journalism and a room full of college students, Toloui-Semnani is also in the business of shaping those diamonds.
Groundbreaking news may look a bit different in the years to come, and Toloui-Semnani said she plans to ensure ethics and integrity remain integral to stories that get told as Bellisario College students develop into the world’s next generation of journalists.
After observing the world’s divisions, Toloui-Semnani said she believes collaboration and storytelling have power.
“This is the time to find and to take solace in the collective,” she said.