Carnegie Mellon University
July 15, 2010

PhD Student Emily Klein Wins Prestigious Teaching Award

PhD Student Emily Klein Wins Prestigious Teaching Award Emily Klein is the winner of the 2010 H&SS Student Teaching Award.

Emily graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1999 with a B.A. in English (American Literature). In May, she received her PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon. Her dissertation title was "Constructing the American Activist: Twentieth Century Political Performances and Discourses of Social Change."

Her faculty, peers, and students describe Emily as an exceptional teacher with a strong record of service in the college-"one of the best upper division teachers to have emerged in recent years;" "one of the most dynamic teachers in the English department."

In the key service course 76-101, Emily designed imaginative syllabi and delivered them so effectively to 1st year audiences that her sections were sought out by students, often generating long wait-lists for her courses. She was also an inspiration in her role as teaching assistant for the department's high-profile Shakespeare course. Because of her successes and creativity as an instructor, the English department gave Emily the relatively rare opportunity to design her own 200- and 300- level courses. As her nominator, Kathy Newman, puts it, "Because of Klein's successful 101 courses, she has developed a following. I recently had the pleasure of teaching a student whom Klein had convinced to become an English major. This is the kind of impact that we expect from our junior faculty, but which is much more rare to find among our PhDs."

"In my experience, the graduate students in H&SS are incredibly talented and passionate instructors. I think they do some of the best teaching on campus, so I'm especially honored to have been chosen for the award from such an exceptional pool," Emily says of winning the award.

"I'm also grateful to the English department for having given me the opportunity to develop new syllabi and teach courses that were relevant to my research," she adds.

Emily will be leaving Pittsburgh in a few weeks to start her job as Assistant Professor of English at Birmingham Southern College. Congratulations and best wishes to Emily Klein, winner of the 2010 H&SS Student Teaching Award!