By Meg Mills
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 11, 2023) — Katie Kohls, a graduate instructor in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 10 winners to receive the University of Kentucky’s 2022-23 Outstanding Teaching Award.
These awards identify and recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching.
“I am honored to receive this teaching award," said Kohls, who is a Ph.D. candidate in the UK Department of English and teaches in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies (WRD). "Creating quality and fun learning experiences for my students is a passion of mine, and being recognized for those efforts is very rewarding and validating. I am so thankful to my campus partners like the Louis B. Nunn Center for Oral Histories, CELT and the Esports Lounge, and to my departments — WRD studies and English — because my success at teaching would not be possible without their support. Teaching is often an act of community-building within the classroom, but I am so thankful I have been able to extend that community beyond our roster."
Kohls’ research includes the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) where she, with IRB approval, studies her students' assessments of their own learning experience and how they view themselves as researchers and writers. Her research also includes the exploration on the remediation of 19th-century British imperial white womanhood in modern popular culture and social media.
She received her master’s degree in English from the University of Louisville and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Findlay.
This year’s Outstanding Teaching Awards were given to four faculty, three lecturers and three graduate teaching assistants. Each winner received an award certificate, a commemorative engraved gift and a cash award in recognition of their teaching excellence.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $501 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.