Faculty Teaching Awards
Highlighting award-wining teaching
Recognizing Faculty
The College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi is home to some of the finest educators in the nation. CLA faculty are recognized at the campus, state, regional, and national levels for their teaching excellence.
Educating undergraduate and graduate students and mentoring them is the job of the nearly 700 faculty members who teach in the College of Liberal Arts. These faculty members bring their important intellectual skills and cutting-edge discoveries to the classroom and lab, providing students with the utmost in educational experiences.
Each year, the College of Liberal Arts recognizes several educators with prestigious teaching awards. Recipients of these awards are nominated by their students and peers. Another award is recognized jointly with the Mississippi Humanities Council.
2024 UM Mississippi Humanities Teacher of the Year
"The truth is, I love this job, a job where I get to talk about stories all the time, and get to see students create them. Just yesterday my Beginning Fiction Writing class and I composed a scene, together, on the white dry-erase board in our classroom. It was amazing to see what they pulled out of a prompt I’d given. The whole class worked as some kind of force, creating something (a story) out of nothing."
Tommy G Franklin
Associate Professor of Fiction Writing
2024 Cora Lee Graham Award for Outstanding Teaching of First-Year Students
James M Bos
Associate Professor of Religion
2024 Howell Family Outstanding Teacher of the Year
Marcos Alexander Mendoza
Associate Professor of Anthropology
CLA Teaching Awards
In 1984, Cora Lee Graham of Union City, Tennessee, established an endowment “to help retain better professors who teach the freshman classes” in the College of Liberal Arts. Criteria for this annual award include, but are not limited to, excellence of class instruction, intellectual stimulation of students, and concern for students’ welfare. Recipients are recognized during the College’s commencement ceremony, have their name added to an award plaque in the Dean’s office, and receive $1,000. Eligibility for these awards is open to all full-time faculty in the College of Liberal Arts who are actively involved in teaching 100- or 200-level courses or other courses intended primarily for freshmen. As of 2023, two awards are given: one for tenured/tenure-track and the other for Instructional faculty. Temporary and visiting faculty, as well as previous recipients, are not eligible.
Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty Award
Jon F. Parcher, Chemistry & Biochemistry 1987
Lee N. Bolen, Physics and Astronomy 1988
Kwang-Sik Yun, Chemistry & Biochemistry 1989
Daniel E. Williams, English 1990
Jeffrey R. Watt, History 1991
Gerard Buskes, Mathematics 1992
William D. Scott, Chemistry & Biochemistry 1993
Kees Gispen, History 1994
Paul K. Lago, Biology 1995
Hans-Jurgen Gaycken, Modern Languages 1996
Walter E. Cleland, Jr., Chemistry & Biochemistry 1997
Michael P. Lynch, Philosophy & Religion 1998
L. Marvin Overby, Political Science 1999
Holly Reynolds, Political Science 2000
Kathryn McKee, English & Southern Studies 2001
Gary R. Gaston, Biology 2002
Frederick E. Laurenzo, History 2003
Timothy Nordstrom, Political Science 2004
Aileen Ajootian, Classics 2005
Joe Turner Cantú, Theatre Arts 2006
Jason Ritchie, Chemistry & Biochemistry 2007
Tamar Goulet, Biology 2008
Greg Tschumper, Chemistry & Biochemistry 2009
Lou Haney, Art 2010
Eric Thomas Weber, Public Policy Leadership 2011
Jeff Jackson, Sociology & Anthropology 2012
Sarah Moses, Philosophy & Religion 2013
Melvin Arrington, Modern Languages 2014
Hilary Becker, Classics 2015
Joshua Brinlee, Art & Art History 2016
Steven Davis, Chemistry & Biochemistry 2017
Molly Pasco-Pranger, Classics 2018
Colin Jackson, Biology 2019
Catarina Passidomo, Sociology & Anthropology, Southern Studies 2020
Neil Manson, Philosophy 2021
Jacqueline Frost DiBiasie-Sammons, Classics 2022
Rebecca Katherine Marchiel, History 2023
James Bos, Philosophy & Religion 2024
Instructional Faculty Award
Rebecca Symula, Biology 2023
Bryan McAdams, Theatre & Film 2024
In 1985, the College of Liberal Arts began recognizing the Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Criteria for the annual award include, but are not limited to, excellence of class instruction, intellectual stimulation of students, and concern for students’ welfare. Recipients are recognized during the College of Liberal Arts commencement ceremony, have their name added to an award plaque in the Dean’s office, and receive $1,000. All full-time faculty, in the College of Liberal Arts, who are actively teaching courses at any level, are eligible. Temporary and visiting faculty, as well as previous recipients, are not eligible.
From 1985 until 2023, eligibility for the Howell Family Outstanding Teacher of the Year was limited to faculty of professorial rank (assistant professor through full professor) of the College of Liberal Arts. The list below reflects the honorees awarded under the past criteria.
Sheila L. Skemp, History 1985
Jerrold J. Heindel, Biology 1986
James J. Cooke, History 1987
William F. Lawhead, Philosophy & Religion 1988
Mary Jeanne Kallman, Psychology 1989
Eldon L. Miller, Mathematics 1990
Kenneth O. McGraw, Psychology 1991
Donald Dyer, Modern Languages & Linguistics 1992
John S. Hull, Biology 1993
Talmadge James Reid, Mathematics 1994
Colby H. Kullman, English 1995
Lee N. Bolen, Physics 1996
Daniell L. Mattern, Chemistry & Biochemistry 1998
Rebecca L. Holberton, Biology 1999
Edmund D. Keiser, Biology 2000
Douglass Sullivan-González, History 2001
Samir A. Husni, Journalism 2002
Ethel A. Young-Minor, English 2003
Benjamin F. Fisher, English 2004
John R. Neff, History 2005
Ann Fisher-Wirth, English 2006
Sheri Rieth, Art 2007
Daniel O’Sullivan, Modern Languages 2008
Ross Haenfler, Sociology & Anthropology 2009
Jason Klodt, Modern Languages 2010
Beth Ann Fennelly, English 2011
Susan Pedigo, Chemistry & Biochemistry 2012
Felice Coles, Modern Languages, 2013
Jay Watson, English 2014
Kathryn McKee, English, Southern Studies 2015
Gerard Buskes, Mathematics 2016
Matt Long, Art & Art History 2017
Nidhi Vij Mali, Public Policy Leadership 2018
Heather J. Allen, Modern Languages 2019
Vivian Ibrahim, History, International Studies, 2020
Jason Solinger, English, 2021
Timothy Paul Yenter, Philosophy & Religion, 2022
Maria Jose Garcia Otero, Modern Languages, 2023
Marcos Mendoza, Sociology and Anthroplogy, 2024
The College of Liberal Arts and the Mississippi Humanities Council cosponsor the Humanities Teacher of the Year Award, recognizing outstanding contributions of humanities faculty at the University of Mississippi with a free public lecture in Oxford and at the Mississippi Humanities Council annual awards ceremony in Jackson in the spring.
Colby H. Kullman, English 1995
Charles R. Wilson, History and Southern Studies 1997
Winthrop Jordan, History and African American Studies 1998
Mary E. Stuckey, Political Science 1999
Benjamin Fisher, English 2000
Kathryn McKee, English and Southern Studies 2001
William Lawhead, Philosophy and Religion 2002
Ethel Young Scurlock, English and African American Studies 2003
Donald Dyer, Modern Languages 2004
Aileen Ajootian, Classics 2005
Ann Fisher-Wirth, English 2006
Jeffrey Watt, History 2007
Daniel O’Sullivan, Modern Languages 2008
John Neff, History 2009
Jason Klodt, Modern Languages 2010
Beth Ann Fennelly, English 2011
Jeffrey T. Jackson, Sociology 2012
Felice Coles, Modern Languages 2013
Jay Watson, English 2014
Hilary Becker, Classics 2015
John R. Gutiérrez, Modern Languages and International Studies 2016
Marc Lerner, History 2017
Brad Cook, Classics 2018-2019
Patrick Alexander, English and African American Studies 2019-2020
Brian Foster, Sociology and Southern Studies, 2021
Allen Clark, Modern Languages, 2022
Beth Spencer, English, 2023
Tom Franklin, English, 2024
Nominations Sought for the 2025 College of Liberal Arts Teaching Awards
Criteria include:
- Excellence of class instruction
- Intellectual engagement of students
- Concern for students’ welfare
Recipients will be recognized during the College commencement ceremony, have their names added to award plaques in the Dean’s office, and receive $1,000.
Nominations are currently open.
Deadline for nominations: All nominations must be received in the office of the Dean no later than Friday at noon on March 1, 2025 by 5:00pm.
Nominate a Teacher!
Use the form below to make your nomination.