Professorships and Chairs
George Holmes University Professorships
One of the most prestigious of the awards that the university bestows upon faculty, George W. Holmes University Professorships are supported by the University of Nebraska Foundation from the estate of George W. Holmes, a prominent Lincoln businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in the 1920s. These professorships are awarded in recognition of an extraordinary level of excellence in various aspects of teaching, outreach, scholarly and/or creative achievement, and extensive involvement and service in the advancement of the university's mission.
Kwame Dawes (2021)
Stephen Behrendt (1993)
John E. Weaver and Aaron Douglas Professorships for Teaching Excellence
Established in 2008, John E. Weaver and Aaron Douglas Professorships are awarded to faculty holding the full professor rank who demonstrate sustained and extraordinary levels of teaching excellence and national visibility for instructional activities and/or practice.
Grace Bauer (2019)
Robert Brooke (2015)
Laura White (2014)
Stephen Buhler (2010)
Adele Hall Chair of English
Shari Stenberg (2022)
Jonis Agee (2000)
Willa Cather Professorships
Willa Cather Professorships are awarded to faculty who have demonstrated an exceptional record of distinguished scholarship and creative activity. Their work reflects the highest levels of achievement, quality and importance.
Marco Abel (2020)
Joy Castro (2018)
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (2016)
Gerald Shapiro (2007)
Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professorships
Susan J. Rosowski Professorships recognize faculty at the associate professor level for their contributions in research and teaching, who show exceptional promise for future excellence, and who have achieved distinguished records of scholarship or creative activity.
Jennine Capó Crucet (2021)
Stacey Waite (2020)
Timothy Schaffert (2017)
Matthew Jockers (2015)
Roland Végső (2015)
Joy Castro (2013)
Stephen Ramsay (2013)
Melissa Homestead (2009)
Hillegass University Professorship
The Hillegass University Professorship was established by the Cliffs Charitable Foundation for the English department in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Kenneth M. Price (2000)
James E. Ryan Associate Professorship
Chigozie Obioma (2020)
Faculty Awards for Research & Creative Activity
University Awards
University of Nebraska Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity
The Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award (ORCA) honors members of the University of Nebraska faculty who have conducted outstanding research or creative activity of national and/or international significance.
Kwame Dawes (2019)
Kenneth M. Price (2013)
Jonis Agee (2010)
Wheeler Winston Dixon (2006)
Susan J. Rosowski (2004)
Hilda Raz (2002)
Moira Ferguson (1995)
Oyekan Owomoyela (1994)
Stephen Behrendt (1992)
Louis Crompton (1986)
Paul A. Olson (1984)
Bernice Slote (1978)
College Awards
College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award
The Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award (ORCA) honors recognizes significant research and creative accomplishments of faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences over the last five years.
Roland Végső (2021)
Adrian S. Wisnicki (2020)
Jonis Agee (2019)
Maureen Honey (2018)
Kenneth M. Price (2016)
Stephen Behrendt (2015)
Kwame Dawes (2014)
Joy Castro (2013)
Gerald Shapiro (2007)
Wheeler Winston Dixon (2003)
Hilda Raz (2001)
College of Arts & Sciences Mentoring Award
Grants
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant
Kwame Dawes and Lorna Dawes, The African Poetry Digital Portal (2022)
National Endowment for the Humanities Grants
Adrian S. Wisnicki (co-PI), Collaborative Organization for Virtual Education (2022)
Matt Cohen and Kenneth M. Price, The Walt Whitman Archive
“Walt Whitman’s Journalism: Finding the Poet in the Brooklyn Daily Times” (2020)
“Walt Whitman Archive Infrastructure Revitalization” (2020)
“Walt Whitman’s Annotations” (2016)
Melissa Homestead and Emily J. Rau
Society for the Study of American Women Writers Digital Recovery Hub (2020)
Matt Cohen, Kenneth M. Price, and Stephanie Browner (The New School), The Charles Chesnutt Digital Archive
“Charles Chesnutt: A Digital Archive” (2018)
“Beyond East and West: Exchanges and Encounters in the Early Modern World, 1400-1800”, a summer institute for college and university professors (2017)
National Endowment for the Humanities/National Writing Project Building a More Perfect Union Grant
The Nebraska Writing Project (Robert Brooke, director) and Friends of Homestead National Park
“There's No Such Thing as Free Land: Understanding the Homestead Acts through Multiple Perspectives” (2022)
Purdue University Humanities Without Walls Seed Grant
Adrian S. Wisnicki (co-PI), “Recovering BIPOC Voices” (2022)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant
Melissa Homestead (co-PI), The Women’s Print History Project, 1750-1830 (2020)
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) Grants
Ed Folsom (University of Iowa) and Kenneth M. Price, The Walt Whitman Archive
“Fame and Infamy: Walt Whitman’s Old Age Correspondence” (annual grants, 2016-2021)
American Council of Learned Societies
Joy Castro, Margaret Huettl, Jeannette Eileen Jones, Kenneth M. Price, and William G. Thomas III, New Storytellers: The Research Institute on Digital Ethnic Studies (2019-2021)
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar
To participate in the summer institute “José Martí and the Cuban Immigrant Communities of Florida” (2019)
National Endowment for the Arts Individual Creative Writing Fellowships
Hope Wabuke (2017)
For her book The Body Family (Haymarket Books, 2022)
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipends
Melissa Homestead (2017)
For her book The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant
Other Awards
Neustadt International Prize Finalist
Kwame Dawes (2022)
For his poetry collection Prophets (Peepal Tree Press, 2018 reissue)
PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing
Kwame Dawes (2021)
Windham-Campbell Prize
Kwame Dawes (2019)
The Booker Prize Shortlist
Chigozie Obioma (2015 & 2019)
For his first and second novels, An Orchestra of Minorities (Little, Brown and Company, 2019) and The Fishermen (Little, Brown and Company, 2015)
International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) Publication of the Year
Rachael W. Shah (2022)
For her book Rewriting Partnerships: Community Perspectives of Community-Based Learning (Utah State University Press, 2020)
Coalition for Community Writing Outstanding Book Award
Rachael W. Shah (2022)
For her book Rewriting Partnerships: Community Perspectives of Community-Based Learning (Utah State University Press, 2020)
Children's Literature Association's Honor Book Award
Gabrielle Owen (2022)
For her book A Queer History of Adolescence: Development Pasts, Relational Futures (University of Georgia Press, 2020)
Penguin Random House Internationl “One World, One Book” Program
Timothy Schaffert (2022)
For The Perfume Thief (2021)
Society for Textual Scholarship David Greetham Prize
Matt Cohen (2022)
For “Time and the Bibliographer: A Meditation on the Spirit of Book Studies”
Society for Textual Scholarship Richard J. Finneran Award
The Walt Whitman Archive (2022)
For the digital Leaves of Grass (1855) Variorum
American Academy in Berlin Prize
Marco Abel (2019)
18th Annual International Latino Book Awards — Best Latino/a-themed Fiction Book Winner
Jennine Capó Crucet (2017)
For her novel Make Your Home Among Strangers (MacMillan, 2015)
2017 Independent Publisher Book Award
Kwame Dawes (2017)
For editing the essay collection When the Rewards Can Be So Great: Essays on Writing and the Writing Life (Pacific University Press, 2016)
James V. Griesen 2017 Chancellor's Award for Exemplary Service to Students
Kelly Payne (2017)
Faculty Awards for Service & Outreach
Louise Pound-George Howard Distinguished Career Award
This award was approved by the Faculty Senate in 1989 to recognize an individual whose career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has made an exceptional contribution to the university community through teaching, research, administrative service, or a combination of those activities.
Fran Kaye (2016)
Barbara DiBernard (2011)
James A. McShane (2004)
Paul A. Olson (1999)
Fred Link (1995)
Nebraska Faculty Senate James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award
Recognizes “an individual whose efforts have helped to preserve the most basic freedom of all, the freedom to seek and communicate the truth.”
Dr. Charles Riedesel Outstanding Academic Advising Award
This award recognizes exceptional faculty or staff members who go beyond basic advising duties to provide support, empowerment, coaching, counseling, and guidance to enable students to succeed.
Kelly Payne (2016)
James V. Griesen Exemplary Service to Students Award
This award recognizes individuals who go beyond the performance of their assigned work, devoting extra time and effort in serving the needs of students. The award acknowledges extraordinary and sustained performance on behalf of students.
Kelly Payne (2017)
Robert Bergstrom (1998)
Outstanding Contributions to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community
The awards recognize efforts to create an inclusive, respectful and safe climate for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
Timothy Schaffert (2022)
Stacey Waite (2017)
Joy Ritchie (2005)
Department of English (2004)
Louis Crompton (2003)
George E. Wolf (2003)
Barbara DiBernard (2002)
EGSA Star Professor Award
Presented by the English Student Graduate Association.
Amelia Montes (2017 2022)
Rachael W. Shah (2020)
Timothy Schaffert (2019)
Shari Stenberg (2018)
Outstanding Contributions to the Status of Women
The award recognizes outstanding faculty, staff and student efforts to create a climate that encourages women to succeed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and demonstrates a sustained and tangible impact on the campus community.
Barbara DiBernard (1995)
College of Arts & Sciences Engagement Award
The CAS Engagement Award honors people or units involved in examplary engagement activities that have an impact beyond the university—within a community, the state of Nebraska, the nation, or the world.
Nebraska Writing Project (2018)
Robert Brooke, Director
Family and Friends Recognition Awards
These awards, presented annually by the Parents Association (and formerly known as the Parents’ Recognition Awards), honor faculty and staff who have made a significant difference in students' lives.
Kathleen Lacey (2015 & 2022)
Wheeler Winston Dixon (2014, 2016 & 2019)
Eder Jaramillo (2019)
Yulia Levchenko (2016 & 2019)
Robert Lipscomb (2019)
Beverley Rilett (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019)
Amanda Gailey (2016 & 2018)
Fran Kaye (2018)
Guy Reynolds (2018)
Stephen Behrendt (2014 & 2017)
Stephen Buhler (2017)
Jennine Capó Crucet (2017)
Brie Owen (2017)
Gregory Rutledge (2017)
Kelly Stage (2016 & 2017)
Shari Stenberg (2017)
Jack Vespa (2017)
Robert Fuglei (2016)
Brenda Ingraham (2016)
Michael Page (2016)
Kelly Payne (2016)
Pascha Sotolongo Stevenson (2016)
Joseph Goecke (2015)
Kelly Payne (2015)
Julia Schleck (2015)
Stacey Waite
Grace Bauer (2014)
Richard Graham (2014)
Timothy Schaffert (2014)
Pascha Stevenson (2014)
Laura White (2000, 2003 & 2010)
Faculty Teaching Awards
The Department of English was only the second department to receive the University of Nebraska’s system-wide departmental teaching award. Since that time, the department has continued to lengthen its record of teaching excellence. Our instructors are widely recognized for the innovative spirit that they bring to their classrooms. The deep commitment to our students that permeates the culture of our entire department has been officially acknowledged by the College of Arts and Sciences, UNL, as well as the wider profession.
For recognitions of our faculty’s teaching, visit our Excellence in Teaching page.
Student Achievements
Awards, honors, and recognition received by English and Film Studies students, past and present.