Faculty Teaching Awards
Highlighting award-winning 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.
2026 Teaching Awards Recipients
Dr. Valentina Iepuri
Associate Professor of Russian
Department of Modern Languages
Dr. Valentina B. Iepuri is Associate Professor of Russian and Director of the Russian Language Program in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi. Her research interests include Russian language in the post-Soviet period, languages in contact, and language pedagogy. A former Fulbright and Swedish Institute fellow recognized with prizes from the Central Association of Russian Teachers of America and Mississippi Foreign Language Association, Dr. Iepuri coordinates and teaches Russian language courses from beginner to advanced levels and advises students on their study abroad programs. She also directs and serves on master’s and Ph.D. student committees for translation studies.
- 2026 Cora Lee Graham Award for Outstanding Teaching of First-Year Students Award Recipient
Dr. Eric Solomon
Instructor of English and Southern Studies
Department of English
Eric Solomon is an Instructor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. He received his PhD from Emory University and is an alumnus of UM’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. He grew up in the Mississippi Delta. His work has been featured in Southern Cultures, Southern Spaces, South Atlantic Review, Studies in the Literary Imagination, Mississippi Quarterly, the North Carolina Literary Review, and Mississippi Today, among others. He is the editor of the “Queer Intersections” special series with the journal Southern Spaces. His first book, Queer Straits, is forthcoming from University Press of Florida.
- 2026 Cora Lee Graham Award for Outstanding Teaching of First-Year Students Award Recipient
Dr. Alexandra Lindgren-Gibson
Associate Professor of History
Department of History
Alexandra Lindgren-Gibson is an associate professor of history, specializing in the social and cultural history of modern Britain and empire. Her research focuses on how the things that shape everyday life–what you eat, where you live, how you work, and who you love– intersect with big historical questions about class, gender, race, empire, and power. She is the author of Working-Class Raj: Colonialism and the Making of Class in British India, and articles in the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History and Victorian Studies. Dr. LG teaches courses in the histories of modern Europe, Britain, gender, and food; public history; and Honors 101/102.
- 2026 Howell Family Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award Recipient
Dr. Richard Purcell
Hubert H. McAlexander Chair and Associate Professor of English and Director of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Cinema Studies
Department of English
Dr. Purcell was a faculty member in English at Carnegie Mellon University before joining the Department of English at the University of Mississippi in 2022. He has expertise in fi lm and media, with a particular interest in Black literature, poetry, music and other forms of Black performance and visual art.
- 2026 University of Mississippi Humanities Teacher of the Year Award Recipient
Previous CLA Teaching Awards Recipients
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
Jonathan Fenno, Department of Classics, 2025
James Bos, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 2024
Rebecca Katherine Marchiel, Department of History, 2023
Jacqueline Frost DiBiasie-Sammons, Department of Classics, 2022
Neil Manson, Department of Philosophy, 2021
Catarina Passidomo, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Southern Studies, 2020
Colin Jackson, Department of Biology, 2019
Molly Pasco-Pranger, Department of Classics, 2018
Steven Davis, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 2017
Joshua Brinlee, Department of Art & Art History, 2016
Hilary Becker, Department of Classics, 2015
Melvin Arrington, Department of Modern Languages, 2014
Sarah Moses, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 2013
Jeff Jackson, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, 2012
Eric Thomas Weber, Department of Public Policy Leadership, 2011
Lou Haney, Department of Art, 2010
Greg Tschumper, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 2009
Tamar Goulet, Department of Biology, 2008
Jason Ritchie, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 2007
Joe Turner Cantú, Department of Theatre Arts, 2006
Aileen Ajootian, Department of Classics, 2005
Timothy Nordstrom, Department of Political Science, 2004
Frederick E. Laurenzo, Department of History, 2003
Gary R. Gaston, Department of Biology, 2002
Kathryn McKee, Department of English & Southern Studies, 2001
Holly Reynolds, Department of Political Science, 2000
L. Marvin Overby, Department of Political Science, 1999
Michael P. Lynch, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 1998
Walter E. Cleland, Jr., Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 1997
Hans-Jurgen Gaycken, Department of Modern Languages, 1996
Paul K. Lago, Department of Biology, 1995
Kees Gispen, Department of History, 1994
William D. Scott, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 1993
Gerard Buskes, Department of Mathematics, 1992
Jeffrey R. Watt, Department of History, 1991
Daniel E. Williams, Department of English, 1990
Kwang-Sik Yun, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 1989
Lee N. Bolen, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 1988
Jon F. Parcher, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 1987
Instructional Faculty Award
Lydia Lytal, Department of Biology, 2025
Bryan McAdams, Department of Theatre & Film, 2024
Rebecca Symula, Department of Biology, 2023
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.
Matthew Reysen, Department of Psychology, 2025
Marcos Mendoza, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2024
Maria Jose Garcia Otero, Department of Modern Languages, 2023
Timothy Paul Yenter, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 2022
Jason Solinger, Department of English, 2021
Vivian Ibrahim, Department of History, International Studies, 2020
Heather J. Allen, Department of Modern Languages, 2019
Nidhi Vij Mali, Department of Public Policy Leadership, 2018
Matt Long, Department of Art & Art History, 2017
Gerard Buskes, Department of Mathematics, 2016
Kathryn McKee, Department of English, Southern Studies, 2015
Jay Watson, Department of English, 2014
Felice Coles, Department of Modern Languages, 2013
Susan Pedigo, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 2012
Beth Ann Fennelly, Department of English, 2011
Jason Klodt, Department of Modern Languages, 2010
Ross Haenfler, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, 2009
Daniel O’Sullivan, Department of Modern Languages, 2008
Sheri Rieth, Department of Art, 2007
Ann Fisher-Wirth, Department of English, 2006
John R. Neff, Department of History, 2005
Benjamin F. Fisher, Department of English, 2004
Ethel A. Young-Minor, Department of English, 2003
Samir A. Husni, Department of Journalism, 2002
Douglass Sullivan-González, Department of History, 2001
Edmund D. Keiser, Department of Biology 2000
Rebecca L. Holberton, Department of Biology, 1999
Daniell L. Mattern, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 1998
Lee N. Bolen, Department of Physics, 1996
Colby H. Kullman, Department of English, 1995
Talmadge James Reid, Department of Mathematics, 1994
John S. Hull, Department of Biology, 1993
Donald Dyer, Department of Modern Languages & Linguistics, 1992
Kenneth O. McGraw, Department of Psychology, 1991
Eldon L. Miller, Department of Mathematics, 1990
Mary Jeanne Kallman, Department of Psychology, 1989
William F. Lawhead, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 1988
James J. Cooke, Department of History, 1987
Jerrold J. Heindel, Department of Biology, 1986
Sheila L. Skemp, Department of History, 1985
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.
Jackie DiBiasie-Sammons, Department of Classics, 2025
Tom Franklin, Department of English, 2024
Beth Spencer, Department of English, 2023
Allen Clark, Department of Modern Languages, 2022
Brian Foster, Department of Sociology and Southern Studies, 2021
Patrick Alexander, Department of English and African American Studies, 2019–2020
Brad Cook, Department of Classics, 2018–2019
Marc Lerner, Department of History, 2017
John R. Gutiérrez, Department of Modern Languages and International Studies, 2016
Hilary Becker, Department of Classics, 2015
Jay Watson, Department of English, 2014
Felice Coles, Department of Modern Languages, 2013
Jeffrey T. Jackson, Department of Sociology, 2012
Beth Ann Fennelly, Department of English, 2011
Jason Klodt, Department of Modern Languages, 2010
John Neff, Department of History, 2009
Daniel O’Sullivan, Department of Modern Languages, 2008
Jeffrey Watt, Department of History, 2007
Ann Fisher-Wirth, Department of English, 2006
Aileen Ajootian, Department of Classics, 2005
Donald Dyer, Department of Modern Languages, 2004
Ethel Young Scurlock, Department of English and African American Studies, 2003
William Lawhead, Department of Philosophy and Religion, 2002
Kathryn McKee, Department of English and Southern Studies, 2001
Benjamin Fisher, Department of English, 2000
Mary E. Stuckey, Department of Political Science, 1999
Winthrop Jordan, Department of History and African American Studies, 1998
Charles R. Wilson, Department of History and Southern Studies, 1997
Colby H. Kullman, Department of English, 1995