Teacher of the Year Recognized by Students for Inspiring Passion for Literature

Each year, Otterbein honors outstanding teachers for their impact on their students, colleagues, and the University. Professor Paul Eisenstein, Department of English, was recognized as Teacher of the Year for 2025-26. This dedicated professor has been teaching English, Film, Integrative Studies, and Honors classes at Otterbein since 1996, challenging countless students to open their minds to new ideas and grow intellectually and personally through the power of literature and film.

Students who have taken his courses say:

• “He loves what he does, and his passion is infectious.”
• “Eisenstein is incredibly intelligent and clearly cares very much about the material he’s teaching and the students’ understanding. His passion and command of language have made every class I’ve taken under him really engaging.”
• “The best professor at Otterbein.”

We asked Professor Eisenstein to give us some insight into what makes him such an impactful teacher.

Why are you passionate about the subjects you teach?

Eisenstein: Writers and filmmakers give us so much to think about. The ability to talk and write about books and films in ways that go beyond merely likes or dislikes — for me, everything depends on this. Books and films help us to understand history in new and powerful ways. They help us to figure out what we want . . . and, perhaps just as importantly, what others want from us.

What is your favorite class to teach?

Eisenstein: In the past several years, I have twice had the chance to teach an upper-division course devoted to the films of a single director. The first time I taught the class, we spent the entire semester on the films of Stanley Kubrick. The second time (this past autumn), we spent the entire semester on the films (and television!) of David Lynch. The chance to take a deep dive into — and cover pretty much the entire artistic output of — a single director represents a unique educational experience.

What do you hope your students take from your classes?

Eisenstein: I want students to understand and appreciate the power, beauty, and importance of literature. I hope that I help to equip them to see, for example, how a novelist’s staging of events (or a poet’s turn of phrase) can sometimes stop us in our tracks — how it can get us to ask questions, to experience joy or sorrow, and to think in a new or different way about ourselves and our place in the world.

What is one lesson you want students to carry with them not related to the subject matter?

Eisenstein: It is okay to be conflicted or ambivalent (or even confused) sometimes. I think speed is overly venerated these days. I want students to give themselves permission to inhabit durations in which things are not immediately crystal clear — durations in which they might experience competing allegiances or be torn in two different directions.

What has been your favorite class project or activity you’ve done with your students and why?

Eisenstein: One class project I have really enjoyed is related to Walt Whitman’s 1855 poem “Song of Myself.” Whitman believed that poetry ought to be for everyone: he hated hierarchies and did not have an elitist bone in his body. In the course in which I teach Whitman’s poem, I ask students to choose one section of the poem to share with someone in their lives (a parent, a teammate, a coach or mentor). Students write an account of the section they have chosen and submit a video recording of the person with whom they share the section reading this section. It’s an assignment that I enjoy because it exemplifies or enacts a Whitmanesque commitment to making poetry accessible to everyone.

What is your favorite part about working at Otterbein?

Eisenstein: I never fail to be impressed by the earnestness, resilience, and intellectual curiosity of our students. One favorite part about working at Otterbein is when you see a student in their senior year — either in a class or in an undergraduate Honors thesis — produce their best work. It is very gratifying to behold their pride and sense of accomplishment.

Inseparable from this favorite is being proximate to the teaching and research of fellow professors. It is buoying to be part of a faculty with such intellectual and imaginative commitments when it comes to teaching and publishing in their fields.