After 24 years of teaching English, Tammy Clewell, Ph.D., has some advice for students: “Bring your most curious version of yourself to every class that you attend.”
Clewell, professor of English at Kent State University, creates discussion-based classes that give students the opportunity to learn and grow.
She said she puts her full personality on display in class, which brings a level of comfort for students.
“I bring my 100% to every class that I teach,” Clewell said. “Some of the material I have been teaching for a long time, so I try to find something fresh for myself that then translates into a fresh experience in the classroom.”
Students notice her excitement while teaching and enjoy her attitude towards the content she presents.
“I have hardly felt as respected as both a student and an artist in other classrooms on Kent State’s campus as I have in Professor Clewell’s classroom," a student nominator wrote. “Not to mention, treated with respect and as an adult.”
Her passion for 20th-century British and Irish literature has been a driving force in her life. Clewell studied and researched these areas of literature while getting her Ph.D. at Florida State University. She is heavily inspired by authors such as T.S. Elliot and Virginia Woolf.
Clewell works very hard to instill that love of learning into her students by making each class new and exciting for them and herself. She wants each meeting to be a unique experience, which the students appreciate.
“Every lecture, every lesson, every reading was intentionally selected to challenge us to reconsider accepted norms and challenges of our society and the human condition,” another student wrote in her evaluation. “While I didn’t fall in love with every reading, I gained an appreciation for each of them and for Tammy’s socratic seminar style of teaching.”
All of the combined connections with her students over the years have earned her the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Clewell is one of three Kent State educators honored with the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2023. The recognition, sponsored by the Kent State Alumni Association, has been awarded to distinguished educators since 1967 and is the highest honor a tenured or tenure-track professor can receive.
The respect and admiration Clewell receives goes beyond students. Colleagues have also noted how Clewell relates to those in her classroom on numerous levels.
“I would like to stress Professor Clewell's strongest teaching skill, which is the natural ease she has to start a scholarly conversation with students and keep it sustained,” a fellow colleague wrote.
Clewell is currently on sabbatical, but she looks forward to teaching more English classes in the future and creating an exciting learning environment for students, where students will be able to share and exchange their ideas.
She has more advice for all students to take with them on their academic journeys.
“Be open and be curious, do not shut down ideas, regardless of what those ideas are, regardless of the difficulty of the material,” Clewell said. “Just bring your best, curious self to your life and show up in that way.”
Clewell and the other recipients were honored at the University Teaching Council’s Fall Celebration of Teaching Conference on Oct. 20.
Learn more about the Distinguished Teaching Award and how to nominate a professor.