The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center recognized Steve Clowney as the April 2025 Wally Cordes Chair.  

Professor Clowney is a faculty member in the School of Law at the U of A, teaching courses on Property, Land Use, Trusts & Estates and a seminar on Race & the Law. He is a three-time winner of Professor of the Year in the law school and has published widely on topics, including zoning regulations, monuments, handwritten wills, landscape and rurality, and the presence of violence in informal property systems.

In addition to telling the story of his path to becoming the teacher he is, professor Clowney's Cordes Chair presentation on April 17 combined humor and self-reflection to look back on the mistakes he has made in the classroom. The presentation encouraged faculty to consider what we do in the classroom and how we do it, endorsing the idea that we as teachers evolve over the course of our careers by reflecting on and developing from the mistakes we make. 

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About the Cordes Chair: The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center recognizes six outstanding teaching faculty each academic year as Wally Cordes Chairs. Faculty are selected as Cordes Chairs because they embody the student-centered teaching excellence that late University Professor Emeritus Wally Cordes exhibited throughout his more than 40-year career at the U of A. 

About TFSC: TFSC invests in faculty excellence, promotes innovation in teaching and learning, and supports programs to advance student success. The center provides educational opportunities for faculty such as teaching and learning workshops, teaching symposia, and new faculty orientation. TFSC offers competitive teaching and learning grants for faculty, celebrates effective teaching with several awards and an awards reception, and promotes faculty-to-faculty mentoring through classroom observation. More information about TFSC can be found at their website or by following them on LinkedIn.