Every year at our Awards Celebration, the Department of English recognizes the excellent work of our students, faculty and staff. (If you missed this year’s event, feel free to peruse this year’s Awards Celebration program and view our award archives.)

In addition to the awards celebrated at our departmental celebration, however, our department members are active and recognized at all levels of the university. Below, you’ll find a collection of the many college and university-level recognitions and awards our faculty, staff and students received this past year. Congratulations to all the awardees!

University awards

PhD student Lauren Chivington placed second in the Arts/Oral Presentation division of the Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum, with a presentation of their research on “The Empty Speech Balloon.” The Hayes Forum showcases innovative and exemplary research by Ohio State graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and facilitates fruitful exchanges between graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, the administration, and the public; read more about the Hayes Forum at the Council of Graduate Students website. 

Professor Beth Hewitt is one of three professors recognized with the President and Provost’s Award for Distinguished Faculty Service, which recognizes faculty members whose contributions to the development and implementation of university policies and programs have been extensive and have made documentable impact on the quality of  the university. Nominators specifically noted Hewitt’s contributions in the University Senate, especially her chairing of the Faculty Compensation and Benefits Committee, and her leadership as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of English, where she led a comprehensive overhaul of the English major and the implementation of Ohio State’s new General Education curriculum. Read more about Hewitt’s contributions at the Office of Academic Affairs’ award announcement.

Associate Professor Pranav Jani has been inducted as an honorary link of the 118th class of Sphinx. This honorary society, founded in 1907, is the oldest at Ohio State; lists of members appear on plaques at Sphinx Plaza just north of Thompson Library. Jani was chosen by the 117th class of Sphinx in recognition of his combination of scholarly achievements with activist work and support of students, especially Black and Brown students. Read more about the Sphinx Senior Class Honorary at their website.

Professor Beverly Moss is one of five individuals selected as a 2024 recipient of the university’s Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award, which celebrates diversity efforts at Ohio State and rewards individuals and groups for their commitment to the university’s shared values, especially the values of diversity and innovation, and inclusion and equity. Moss was specifically recognized for her “focus on the inclusion of varied literacies and language in writing and communication environments,” “connecting scholarly inquiry with real-time community action beyond the academy.” Read more about all five DDEA recipients at the Office of Human Resources’ award announcement.

Lord Denney’s Players, under the artistic direction of Associate Professor Sarah Neville, was recognized by Ohio State’s Office of Outreach and Engagement as a Program of Excellence in Engaged Scholarship, recognizing outstanding achievement in producing engaged scholarship and community impact. Lord Denney’s Players provides an opportunity for Ohio State students, staff, and faculty to engage in intensive experiential learning and research throughout the production process, and has has produced 11 productions since its founding in 2014, including staged productions, Zoom-enabled distance productions, and video documentaries that incorporate both performance and commentary; LDP’s most recent production, Looking for Mariam, 1613 (director: Elizabeth Kolkovich), premiered on YouTube on April 28, 2024. To learn more visit Lord Denney’s Players’ website, or see the full list of 2024 University Outreach and Engagement Awards.

Associate Professor Margaret Price and Associate Professor David Ruderman were announced as members of the 2024–25 Global Arts and Humanities Society of Fellows. These fellowships provide faculty with release time to focus on a scholarly and/or creative project that advances the seminar theme — this year, CARE | CULTURE | JUSTICE. 

Price’s project, Transformative Access: Building Collective Care in Institutional Spaces, investigates when and how acts of care including “transformative access” and “collective accountability” occur in academe. Through the building of an accessible, publicly-available digital archive and co-authored article, Transformative Access emphasizes relational processes that center race, ethnicity, disability, class, gender, sexuality, and coalitional work, and that specify access as a form of care

Ruderman’s project, Poetry in the Fields of Poverty and Addiction, builds on a poetry-writing project begun as part of the Day Reporting Program in Newark, Ohio, which offers people charged with low-level drug offenses the opportunity to participate in a 90-day program in lieu of jail or prison. Poetry in the Fields of Poverty and Addiction involves the curation of a collection of poems by and oral histories of people living with and struggling to recover from substance use disorder in Newark, Ohio, and research for a larger book project entitled Literatures of Addiction.

Read more about all the GAHDT faculty fellows at the 2024-25 cohort announcement.

PhD student Elise Robbins is a recipient of the Graduate Associate Teaching Award, the Graduate School’s premier award for celebrating excellence in teaching at the graduate level. Read more about Robbins’s award and her reactions at the press release on our website. 

MFA student Andrew Romriell is a recipient of a Presidential Fellowship, the Graduate School’s most prestigious award to recognize the outstanding scholarly accomplishments and potential of graduate students entering the final phase of their dissertation research or terminal degree project. Read more about Romriell’s work and his reaction to receiving the fellowship at the press release on our website.

Senior Lecturer Amy Tibbals is one of six recipients of the Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer, which recognizes excellence in teaching by lecturers, senior lecturers, and other associated faculty members. Tibbals, who nominators describe as a “much-respected cornerstone” of Ohio State Marion’s writing program, was especially recognized for her role as primary instructor for "Pay It Forward" sections of second-year composition and of business and professional writing, in which students engage in experiential learning, refining their writing abilities by developing a grant request program for local nonprofit organizations that seek project funding. One of Tibbals’ students noted, “Everything she does in the classroom teaches students lessons for life.” Read more about Tibbals’ excellence in teaching at the Office of Academic Affairs’ award announcement.

PhD student Samantha Trzinski is a recipient of an Alumni Grant for Graduate Research and Scholarship, awarded by Ohio State’s Graduate School to support the research and scholarship of doctoral or terminal master’s degree candidates for their dissertations or theses. See the full list of AGGRS awardees at the Graduate School’s website.

College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of English Robyn Warhol is one of six recipients of the university’s Distinguished Scholar Award, which honors faculty members who demonstrate scholarly activity, research or creative works which represent exceptional achievements in their fields and who have brought distinction to themselves and Ohio State. Warhol’s writing and projects have earned accolades and awards across the university and from national and international organizations, including a grant this spring from the National Endowment for the Humanities for “The Part Issue Project,” which will locate, digitize and collect previously undiscoverable 19th-century serial novels published in pamphlet format and put them in a new collection on Hathi Trust for all to use.  In presenting the award, senior leadership praised Warhol as a leading, pioneering scholar in multiple fields, including narrative theory, feminist theory, and Victorian literature and as a generous colleague whose scholarship and service elevates all we do.” Read more about Warhol’s Distinguished Scholar Award via Ohio State’s Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge, and read more about Warhol's NEH grant via the College of Arts and Sciences.

Campus Awards

Professor John Hellmann is the recipient of Ohio State Lima's Outstanding Teaching Award, which recognizes the outstanding performance of a faculty member at the Lima Campus in delivering skills and knowledge to Ohio State University students. It is both recognition of past excellence and encouragement of future innovation. Hellmann reflected on this bidirectional understanding in a brief interview with Ohio State Lima News, noting that he always looks for "opportunities to create dialogue by asking questions and inviting comments. For me the classroom works best as a conversation."

Assistant Professor Zachary Hines is the recipient of Ohio State Lima's Outstanding Scholar Award, and is one of two 2024 fellows supported by the Violet I. Meek Endowment for Faculty Scholarly Activity. The Outstanding Scholar Award recognizes a faculty member for scholarship representing a significant contribution in the scholar’s discipline, and the Meek Endowment supports research and other scholarly activity for faculty members. As a Meek fellow, Hines will conduct archival research toward "Incipit Liber Ultimus: Caxton’s Chronicles and the Beginning of the Medieval Book," a chapter of his current research project, at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Read more about the Meek Endowment and its 2024 fellows at Ohio State Lima News.

College Awards

Read the full list of 2023–24 College of Arts and Sciences award winners, recognizing research, teaching, mentoring and service, at the college’s website

DMP Manager and Communications Supervisor Mike Bierschenk is one of six recipients of the Outstanding Staff Award, which recognizes staff members in the Arts and Sciences who have demonstrated sustained excellence in overall job performance and have improved or enhanced work life and services of faculty, staff, students, and/or the university.

Professor Kathy Fagan Grandinetti is one of four faculty members awarded the title of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, which honors full professors who have excelled in teaching, service, and research/creative activity, and whose work has demonstrated significant impact on their fields, students, college and university, and/or the public.

Associate Professor Alan Farmer is the recipient of the Honors Faculty Service Award, which recognizes excellence in honors advising, honors instruction, honors committee work, and other honors initiatives and responsibilities which have enhanced the quality of education available to honors students in the liberal arts.

Associate Professor Molly Farrell is the recipient in English of the Paul W. Brown Excellence in Teaching Award, which annually recognizes one faculty member in the Department of English and one in the Department of History.

Professors Kay Halasek, Stuart Lishan, and Roxann Wheeler, upon the occasions of their retirements, are awarded the title of Emeritus Faculty in recognition of their sustained academic contributions to the university.

Assistant Professor Mintzi Martínez-Rivera is one of two recipients of the Virginia Hull Research Award, whose award fund supports diversity at the university, consistent with the university's mission, with particular attention to, but not limited to, female faculty members in the humanities who are assistant or associate professors.

Associate Professor Margaret Price is one of four recipients of the Diversity Enhancement Faculty Award, which recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of any faculty member or team of faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences whose research, teaching and/or service/outreach activities promote diversity and support a culture that embraces and exhibits inclusive excellence, community and openness.

Professor Karen Winstead is one of five recipients of the Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching by tenured faculty in the arts and humanities who have exemplary records of engaging, motivating and inspiring students, and of making a difference in students’ educations, lives and careers.