Kate White

Associate Professor

Affiliated Departments

617-747-6566

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Kate White joined the Boston Conservatory faculty in 2000. She was a founding member of the CARES committee at the Conservatory and served on that committee for many years. She loves the diversity of her students’ backgrounds, interests, and enthusiasms, and is daily inspired by their creativity and dedication to the arts.

Previously, White was a founding member and teacher at the William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences at University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she taught in the American studies and law and justice programs, including courses on anti-war activism in the Vietnam War era, student movements in the 1960s and 1970s, and women's rights. She has also taught writing courses at the Framingham prison through PEN America, in the Upward Bound and Year Up programs, and in programs for the elderly and the mentally ill.

In addition to teaching, White has been an editor for writers Barbara Neely (Blanche on the Lamb and other mysteries), Dick Cluster (Alex Glauberman mysteries), Anika Nailah (short stories), Jonathan Buchsbaum (film studies texts), Shelley Evans (One Kill and other film scripts), and others.

In Their Own Words

"I have spent most of my professional life working as a writer and editor. Because I have experience with both writing and editing, I am a strong ally for writers, encouraging originality and creative courage at the same time as I help solve writing problems. I have been very lucky to encounter a huge diversity of voices, and I am relentless in my quest to help students do their best work in their own way. I like to see students engaged and productive, and I am often moved and thrilled by their accomplishments."

"I hope students leave my classes with confidence in their powers of intellectual exploration and with a keen interest in making connections between the world of books and their own artistic paths. I think pleasure is underrated in education. I model and encourage appreciative, collaborative discussion, presentations, and writing projects. Feedback I have gotten from students suggests that they do experience the pleasure of learning. Students say they enjoy the complex subject matter, which ranges from fiction to poetry to history to politics. They also say that the process of learning is fun and that in my classroom their ideas really matter."

"I’ve taken great pleasure in seeing many of my students graduate and go on to do amazing things."