The Mabel S. Fry Award for Teaching Excellence recognizes the efforts of a faculty member who demonstrates excellence in both classroom teaching and graduate student mentoring.

Some elements that are considered in the selection include: 

• Classroom demeanor/Pedagogical excellence
• Quality of advising to graduate students
• Improvement to the department

2007 - Amy Devitt Excerpts from the nominating letters: "In Professor Amy Devitt’s teaching, mentoring, and scholarship, she demonstrates the highest level of commitment to the success of graduate and undergraduate students, and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such a generous and gifted scholar and educator."

"In both English 801 and the genre seminar, I admired Professor Devitt most for her dedication to graduate student learning and to teaching as a serious scholarly endeavor. Even outside of the classroom, Professor Devitt remains committed to teaching. When I worked as her research assistant last year, she used this opportunity to complete research and to instruct me in research and publication processes. Whereas many research assistants work for their professors, she and I worked together as co-investigators. She, of course, provided guidance, suggesting areas to examine, directions to take, and research methods to consider, but she also placed responsibility on me as an active member of the project."

"In addition to being a conscientious educator, she is a reliable and knowledgeable advisor. Her door is always open to students who need professional and teaching advice, and many of my colleagues and I have taken advantage of this generosity and availability. Her teaching advice has proven invaluable in designing courses or assignments and solving problems that arise in the classroom. Additionally she strongly supports my scholarship by reading my works-in-progress and encouraging me to submit work to journals. Her active interest in my work and career provides me with the confidence necessary to succeed in my studies, and I trust that her guidance will continue to serve me well in the future. I also deeply admire her ability to balance professional concern with genuine personal concern."

"Professor Devitt embodies the traits of a truly outstanding educator and advisor, and I am proud and honored to call her my mentor. Her continuous support has been instrumental in my development as a graduate student and scholar, and every success I experience is, in part, a reflection of the dedication, guidance, and intellect of Professor Devitt."
 

2006 - Susan Harris

Excerpts from the nominating letters:

"Professor Harris has served as my instructor, advisor, and mentor, and has demonstrated remarkable talents in each role. I feel privileged to have been able to work so closely with her, and trust that her supervision has prepared me for a meaningful and productive academic career."

"...perhaps the most important knowledge I took away from Professor Harris's class was pedagogical. Each class was organized around a clearly defined set of expectations . . . Professor Harris made explicit the goals for each class period; she gave compelling lectures, led close readings of the texts under study, and worked to put student comments in context. She effectively used many different methods for stimulating student learning, from individual presentations to short group projects."

"Professor Harris's professionalization and collegiality have taught me a great deal about what it is to balance quality teaching with excellence in research. She is always willing to discuss her own projects with me and often genuinely solicits advice. . . . Her commitment to the profession is clearly indicated in her longstanding relationships with scholars all over the country, her service to the department and its graduate students, and her involvement with committees and organizations whose goals keep her work on the cutting edge. Moreover, she is always willing to discuss these professional experiences with those of us who need such knowledge most."

2005 - Beverly Boyd

Excerpts from the nominating letters:

Of her classroom demeanor:  "There was never a moment in class when I believed that Prof. Boyd was anything less than an expert on her subject matter. She says of Chaucer that he makes his craft look easy, which is the mark of a genius. This can be said of her as well: she made medieval literature seem easy, when in fact I was receiving an extraordinary deep and broad education. The strength of her worldly ranking in academia is not one that she wears on her sleeve. Her classroom style, open lecture with ongoing interchanges with students, is a useful vehicle to disseminate the lifetime of knowledge that this internationally recognized scholar embodies. [. . . .] Besides a careful reading of texts, she presented us with rare library holdings, informed us of the professors at KU (and at other institutions) who were experts pertinent to our studies, and most surprising of all, made the distant era of Middle English come alive with concrete materials that she had collected over the years, such as coin collections."

On her quality of advising to graduate students: "[. . . .] she guided us to new areas of research, always grounded in the primary texts but intended to take us into stronger and deeper academic insights. [. . . .] She advised me on conferences that my papers could be developed for, and offered suggestions on what needed to be done to move these papers to that level. She found my developing work worthy of intellectual note, and she referenced it in a book that she has written. That concrete endorsement of academic skill is not a small matter for graduate students. We need proof that we are progressing appropriately, and it happens best when a teacher like Prof. Boyd undertakes responsibility to help us develop our skills beyond the classroom limitations."

On her improvement to the department:  "[. . . .]  I attended the International Chaucer Congress, a rather audacious move for a green graduate student. She advised me on the strengths and weaknesses of various panelists and speakers. While there, I found her sound advice indispensable in guiding me through my first major conference. When other participants noted that I was from the University of Kansas, they immediately asked of Prof. Boyd. I found that I had many friends due to my innocuous role of having been in her classes. Her peers--the plenary speaker from London, the chair of the conference, the panelists on nearly every session offered--offered praise for her scholarship and delight that I was able to study with her. These commendations, offered freely from international scholars with no gain from such remarks, are kind notes about the excellence of her academic work. I can offer this: that had she not so skillfully and continually offered advice in and out of classroom settings, I would not have met the scholarly standards of this conference. Please consider her pedagogical excellence, her deep and historical leadership on our campus, and her committed and self-effacing work in developing students. I highly recommend her for the Mabel S. Fry teaching award."

2004 - Tom Lorenz

Excerpts from the nominating letters:

"Having conducted years of writer's workshops, Tom Lorenz has helped numerous writers learn to make something of a promising, yet patchy work.  He is an expert at picking apart the thick, confusing fabric of a graduate student's short story and spotting the colorful threads that might lead to a much better story if sewn in more intricately."

Tom Lorenz is "the very best kind of mentor": "he's taught me the details to look for in good fiction writing; he's helped me discover the talents I bring to the task; and he's helped me strengthen the self-motivation that is essential to writing success."  The same student wrote, "I am not the only student who leaves each class feeling empowered to 'play' by the way Tom discusses the problems and successes within our stories."

Students appreciate that Professor Lorenz is "right there through the process of writing, eager to talk about it, open to disagreement, and enthusiastic about every effort to make a stretch."

2003 - Frank Farmer

Excerpts from the nominating letters:

"Dr. Farmer's classroom, his office, and his other teaching sites are places where graduate student voices are always welcome, where innovative teaching methods are modeled and promoted."

"In the classroom, Dr. Farmer exhibits a passion for the material he presents, whether it is rhetoric, composition theory, or new ideas for GTAs to use in their classrooms."

"Dr. Farmer has shown an uncommon commitment to providing me with the tools I need to advance in my graduate career, making me aware of research and publication opportunities, involving me in scholarly projects, and always being willing to review my work-in-progress."

"Dr. Farmer is the kind of person whom I believe everyone should have as a professor.  He cares deeply about the art of teaching, about scholarship, and most importantly, about people."

"Dr. Farmer succeeds as a mentor in the way that he refuses to hold himself aloof from his students, for he completes the portrait of the academic as scholar, teacher, and human being in his consistent scholarly, teacherly, and personal support."

2002 - Kirk Branch

2001 - Dorice Elliott

2000 - Elizabeth Schultz

Excerpts from the nominating letters:

"Dr. Schultz combines steadfast dedication to the best interests of her students with unparalleled scholarship."

"Professor Schultz's teaching methods, her extensive research and publications in all genres, her committed service on many graduate student examination committees, and her mentoring of graduate students have made her an exemplary model for all graduate students in our discipline."

1999 - Jim Hartman

1998 - Iris Smith