Mr. Patrick R. Clemens graduated from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2019 with a B.A. in Sociology (secondary concentrations in Environmental Science & English) before pursuing graduate studies. In 2022, he received an M.A. in Sociology (secondary concentrations in Social Psychology and Immigration) from Texas Tech University. Patrick has spent time in the field doing ethnographic research with a variety of communities including the Amish & Mennonite communities of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic as well as migrant communities from Mexico and Puerto Rico. 

Patrick has also worked in conservation and done research in the environmental policy sphere in connection to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources through the Maryland Park Service, as well as spending time in the renewable energy sector working with solar energy systems. Upon returning to academia, Mr. Clemens has served as a Teaching Assistant at Texas Tech University, teaching Immigration, Deviance, and Sociological/Criminological Theory. Mr. Clemens served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology & Psychology at Park University (just outside of Kansas City, MO) during the 2022-2023 academic year. 

Mr. Clemens arrived at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Fall 2023 to serve as a Teaching Associate in Sociology and pursue a Ph.D. in Environmental Sociology and hopes to study issues related to the connections between humans and nature, including but not limited to cultural symbolism, community reactions and resilience during energy transitions, and personal social-psychological connections to land and place. Areas of interest include but are not limited to: environmental sociology, political economy, social psychology, Latin American studies, historical sociology, human geography, and cross-national sociology. In his non-academic life, Patrick enjoys outdoor recreation such as hiking, running, kayaking, and sailing, as well as traveling both domestically and abroad. 

Mr. Patrick Clemens extends a welcome to the reader as well as any current or future students. Go Vols!