Carnegie Mellon University
February 01, 2013

English Department Student, Doug Cloud, Wins Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Award

English Department Student, Doug Cloud, Wins Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Award

Each year the college selects one of its graduate students for the Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Award to recognize excellence, dedication, and innovation in teaching.  We are pleased to announce that English Department Ph.D. candidate Doug Cloud, and Modern Languages Ph.D. candidate Ryan Miller, have been selected as 2013 co-winners of the Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Award.

Doug Cloud received a B.S. in Journalism from Ohio University in 2007. He entered the M.A. program in Rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon in Fall 2007 and received an MA in Rhetoric in May 2008.  He then entered the Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. program in Rhetoric.  A central part of the Ph.D. experience in this program is the opportunity and challenge to develop both as a course designer and classroom instructor, and Doug has filled these roles superbly. 

In the university's required undergraduate writing course 76-101, Interpretation and Argument, Doug has designed a topic which engaged students with issues that are critical to society and that are aligned with Carnegie Mellon's strategic goals of educating students who appreciate diversity and understand global cultures: Is Gay the New Black? At the same time that Doug is teaching students how to engage deeply with controversial topics in a respectful way, he keeps the focus on scaffolding and deepening their skills in interpretation, as well as their oral and written communication skills.

As his nominating letter concludes: "Doug has developed into an extraordinary educator by connecting effectively with his students, his colleagues, and his community and by dedicating himself to improvement in his technique and practice."