Associate Professor Nick Iannarino and English Major Madeline Gatteri recently worked together on a research project for UM-Dearborn’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). The title of their project is ”Seriously Funny: The role of humor in illness narratives.” Both Iannarino and Gatteri are first generation college students, and the Wolverzine talked to them about their experience of undergraduate research and their own journeys as First Gen students.
Wolverzine: Tell me about the project you worked on together.
Nicholas Iannarino: My M.A. thesis was on how comedians told humorous stories about near-death experiences, usually around health issues. One of the stories I read was by Julia Sweeney, who was on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. Her memoir was about how her brother was dying of brain cancer while at the same time she was diagnosed with ovarian and uterine cancer. It was really funny in places, and I was curious about how people can tell funny stories about really serious things. The question for us was whether humor serves to make these stories more relatable, whether it serves to build a bigger community around these illnesses and these experiences.
I also knew that there were two other memoirs written by female comedians about reproductive cancers. Probably the most notable one was Gilda Radner. And then Fran Drescher from The Nanny had a had a memoir about uterine cancer. And so I was interested in expanding on what I had already found with the Sweeney project to look at how these forms of humor were comparable or differed across these different experiences. Maybe Madeleine could talk a little about what her experience was like reading the books
Madelyn Gatteri: Something else that we looked a little bit more closely at was different types of humor, and more specifically, irony and absurdism, because those seemed to be what these comedians use to not only make sense of their experiences, but also boil down their experiences to make it more palatable for their readers and for themselves It really kind of opens up the audience a little bit more from just other people who’ve had these cancers—or people who know about these cancers—to the general public. (The public) can hear their comedic voice, but the comedians also have a chance to talk about this very personal and scary experience and raise awareness and advocacy for it.
Something I noticed is that each memoir focused on a different aspect of healing. I know that Julia Sweeney’s was more familial; she really stuck to her family and her significant other. Fran Drescher’s was about advocacy, and just really fighting to figure out what’s wrong if you feel something’s wrong. And then Radner’s was a lot about outreach and community support. And she talked a lot about how important it was to find people in similar experiences because it’s healing.
Madelyn: This project was also kind of personally meaningful to me because I lost my grandma to breast cancer in the middle of Winter 2023. Had she been able to communicate about her cancer a little bit more, and felt more comfortable communicating about it, I think she might have lived a little bit longer because a lot of that she kept to herself. And her death definitely affected my academic performance for a while—it felt a lot harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel. There’s been multiple points throughout my college career where I’ve considered just dropping out, because that’s what everybody did before me, and that was definitely one of those moments where that grief just really kind of—I felt buried, and it was hard to kind of dig myself out, but I’m glad I did, because I wouldn’t be here.
Wolverzine: Speaking of the value of making personal stories heard, though you obviously come from different generations and different backgrounds, you are both First Gen college students. Did you know previously that you were both First Gen?
Madelyn: I was not aware that we were both First Gen students. But learning that is really cool, because a lot of the faculty members that I look up to, I’m finding out, are first generation students. So these people that I respect and admire, they come from a similar first generation background that I do. And knowing this and seeing where you guys have gone, it makes my career goals a lot less daunting. And it’s just even more inspiring and motivating to know that we come from this same background.
Nick: I didn’t know Madelyn was First Gen either when we started the project. In fact, I didn’t even know the term First Gen until I was a PhD student. I remember my parents feeling very uncertain about how to do FAFSA, for example. I was the guinea pig child in a lot of ways. I picked a college that was very similar to my high school culturally. I feel like my parents were not a primary source for information, but they were still incredibly supportive during the process. Luckily I also had professors who were able to shepherd me through the process, and especially getting into grad school. If I wasn’t performing decently in my studies, I don’t think I would have known much about going to grad school and getting a research or a teaching assistantship or things like that. And so I think one of my favorite things now is just helping students figure out what they want to do after school, whether that’s more school or looking for a job.
Madelyn: Being a first-generation student was something that I used to my advantage in high school, but I was a COVID grad, so the plans I really had in place fell through, so it became less of a focal point. I ended up going to community college and I didn’t really feel important. It was when I got to my sophomore year and beyond where I really kind of felt helpless because I was choosing a degree that nobody in my family knew anything about. My mom has an associate’s degree, but she never finished the four-year degree. She’s a respiratory therapist, so she knows nothing about the English major. My Dad knows nothing about English. So it was really confusing, trying to figure out how I could turn this into a career.
Wolverzine: What do you know now about being First Gen that you wish you knew going into college? What advice would you give to incoming first generation students.
Madelyn: I began college as an art major. I did that for a year before I got sick of it. I probably changed my major like three times. So my biggest piece of advice—just to save money, time, and headaches—is maybe go in undecided. And then, as you go through, figure out what you like, figure out what you want to do, and then commit to that major. Don’t force yourself into something that you know you won’t enjoy. Everybody was suggesting teaching, so I changed my major to teaching, and I hated the classes I was in. I feel like if you don’t enjoy what you’re going to school for, you’re not going to give it your all. If you hate what you’re doing, what’s the point of doing it? And so just following your own compass, I guess, and giving yourself some grace. Because yes, it is nice to finish college within that four-year time span. But you have all the time in the world. It’s not a race.
Nick: My initial thought was to push beyond your comfort zone. But I remember thinking it’s so easy in retrospect to be critical of decisions we made when we were 18. It’s easy to criticize what I feel are somewhat safe choices now, but I was plenty past my comfort zone then. I didn’t have a clear example in my life to show me that moving away from home and succeeding academically and socially in college was doable and attainable. And so I did the best I could with the information I had.
Wolverzine: Madeline, I saw you nodding your head a couple of times related to college and comfort zones.
Madeline: At first it was really hard because I was a very high achiever in high school. I graduated with a 3.9. And so, from going to Central Michigan (I had originally planned to go to Central before COVID) with a scholarship to going to community college with nothing, it was a really hard adjustment. But I think that because I made that choice, I was actually able to finish
and it gave me the chance to really learn about myself and figure out what I wanted to do.
And then coming to U of M, you know it’s right. I was never a big “move away” kind of person. I like being close to home. But this was far enough away to where I could be exposed to new cultures and new perspectives, because I grew up Downriver. So there’s not really much going on down there.
Wolverzine: We talked a bit about how our parents lacked certain experiences that perhaps put us at a disadvantage when we started college. At the same time, one thing that has really become clear in putting these First Gen stories together is that non-college educated parents have a heck of a lot to offer too! A lot of “non-college” or “working class” jobs require elements of problem solving, intuition, hard work, attention to detail, and different ways of seeing things that are immensely valuable even if the skills are put to different uses. Can you tell us about how your own parent’s perspective on work and career helped you achieve success in college?
Nick: Absolutely. My dad took over the family pizza place that my grandpa started in, I think, 1959. And so my dad picked it up basically the day he graduated high school. My grandpa started to phase out and retire and my dad kept it up at a really high standard. He didn’t offer a lot of tangible advice about college, but just what I saw from him, and the level of attention to detail, no matter how he was feeling or how much he wanted to do it or not, he still kept that place running at an extremely high level and having extremely high standards. And, you know, he’s kind of like me—that level of effort can be kind of consuming in some ways. My mom also worked. She’s a registered nurse. Back then you only had to have a nursing certificate, or a nursing diploma, not a college education like you do now. From her I learned more of the self-care and the work-life balance.
Madelyn: So I grew up in a blended family. My mom divorced when I was four, remarried when I was seven. My parents were both about hard work because both of them came from their previous marriages with debt. And so that was their primary focus, was paying down that debt, but also supporting my two sisters and a stepbrother. You know, they were bringing together their two separate lives, four kids under the same roof. Both of my parents were very big on hard work. It was always all or nothing. Everything that they had us do, they wanted us to perform at 100 percent effort. So that kind of led me to being pushed a lot in school, which is probably why I was such a high achiever and why I’m so bright because my mom really advocated for giving me the resources I needed to really build my academic performance.
My dad, we’re not 100% sure, he has either dyslexia or dysgraphia, so he didn’t perform well in school. So that was a big push for him, too, that he didn’t have those opportunities that we had. So both of them really gave it a big push for at least one of us to finish school. So the idea of giving it my all and going 100%, I made that promise to myself and my parents, and I feel like that’s really been the driving factor behind me actually finishing. My siblings make good money doing things that don’t need a college degree. My mom got an associate’s degree, and she’s been a respiratory therapist for almost 30 years. So I’ve grown up knowing that I don’t need this degree, and really I could do a lot without it. But just the idea of giving it my all and following my dreams, that’s really been what’s inspired me to keep going and continue.
