English department faculty excel in teaching, service and research

Monday, June 16, 2025

Award-winning faculty in English, from left: Michele Janette, Allison Kuehne and Abby Knoblauch.

 

Three faculty members in the department of English have been recognized for their incredible contributions in teaching, service and research.

Michele Janette, professor of English, has received the department’s annual Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Across her 26 years of teaching at K-State, Janette has demonstrated extraordinary passion for and commitment to student learning. Whether teaching elective courses in general education, required courses for English majors and minors, or advanced courses on Asian American literatures, Janette creates opportunities for her students to feel excitement, ownership and ambition in their intellectual lives.

"I revel in creating innovative classroom activities that engage my students’ bodies as well as minds," Janette said. "I embrace the kinesthetic and performative as ways to engage students, but always with an eye to how the physical action leads into the learning objective so that these activities create muscle memory and emotional relevance for the material and ideas."

Janette’s students praise her intellectual rigor, creativity and empathy.

"Michele beautifully exemplifies what it means to be a challenging professor, so students have opportunities to lead discussions, instruct, and connect with one another to produce a more exciting approach to academic conversations," Lillianna Lamagna said.

For Rylan Jackson, Janette’s pedagogy has been transformational.

"Coming into college, I was an antisocial butterfly. I certainly never spoke up in class. Dr. Janette taught me how to have confidence in myself. She told me my opinions were worth speaking," Jackson said.

Allison Kuehne, professional advisor and instructor in English, has received the department’s annual Excellence Award for Term Instructors.

A K-State graduate of English at the undergraduate and graduate levels, Kuehne excels as an instructor in children’s literature, film studies and expository writing. Kuehne’s teaching philosophy describes her pedagogical strategy for this success.

"The ability to foster connections is at the heart of my teaching practice," Kuehne writes. "The classroom is a way for students to open doors into the broader community and understand themselves in a deeper way."

Acclaim from Kuehne's students demonstrates her award-winning teaching.

"Allison is an amazing professor," one student states. "Her prompting in discussions helped me consider things I usually would not have or allowed for more textured discussions overall. Ms. Kuehne is a remarkable professor and one of my favorites of the semester due to her compassion and careful control of the class." Another student notes, "She does a very good job of making her students feel welcome and respected. She goes around each day asking every student questions. I appreciate the positive reinforcement she gives when you answer a question because it encourages you to speak up more in class."

Kuehne pioneered a new one-credit-hour course, ENGL 597 Career Paths in English and the Humanities. Majors in English and related fields praise Kuehne for the way she has helped them transition toward their professional lives after graduation.

Abby Knoblauch, associate professor of English, has received the Donnelly Faculty Award in English for 2025-2027.

The award, created by donors Michelle Munson and Serban Simu, Berkeley, California, honors English professor emeritus Michael Donnelly and the impact he had on numerous students. Munson graduated from K-State in 1996 with degrees in physics and electrical engineering. An English class taught by Michael Donnelly greatly influenced her, leading to this gift.

The Donnelly award is given to an outstanding faculty member in the department of English in recognition of their contributions to teaching, research and creative activity, and service. Each recipient holds the award for two years. A new recipient is named each year, allowing the award to be held by two faculty members at a time. An interdisciplinary committee of faculty and alumni selects each year’s recipient.

Knoblauch uses knowledge in writing, rhetoric and pedagogy to help students understand the power of language and to understand the importance of language practices, whether those are students’ own writing processes or broader institutional histories and policies. Knoblauch works closely with pre-service teachers and graduate teaching assistants.

"My teaching has shifted the way educators, both current and future, understand the lasting impact of language ideologies. Writing can serve as a gatekeeper, the effect it has on identity and students’ sense of self-worth," she said.

Knoblauch’s significant, time-intensive contributions as the director of expository writing extend her teaching into the administration of university-required writing courses. In this role, Knoblauch guides curriculum revision and assessment while also overseeing the orientation and mentoring of the department’s graduate teaching assistants.

As Knoblauch explains, “I estimate that I’ve co-mentored approximately 320 GTAs over the years, each of whom have taught an average of six sections of ENGL 100 or 200. I’ve therefore helped shape and strengthen the learning experience of around 42,250 undergraduate students, not including the students in my own courses.”

The 2024-2026 Donnelly Award follows on earlier recognitions for Knoblauch, including the College of Arts and Sciences Stamey Teaching Award and the department’s Student Association of Graduates of English Award for Distinguished Teaching and for Distinguished Service, among other honors.

In addition to her excellence in teaching and service for the university and the profession, Knoblauch has contributed groundbreaking scholarship in composition and rhetoric through her research on feminist rhetorical theories, feminist pedagogies and embodied rhetorics. Her article "Bodies of Knowledge" and her co-edited collection "Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice" have become foundational, widely-cited works in embodied rhetorics, initiating new areas of scholarship in turn.

For more information about the English department in the College of Arts and Sciences, visit the department’s website, social media feeds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and the department's blog.