Writing Lecturer Wins 2025 Teaching Excellence Award

Forgette, assistant chair of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, is the winner of the 2025 St. Amand Outstanding Teaching Award. The universitywide award honors a non-tenure-track faculty member each year for excellence in the classroom.

"Karen Forgette has become a model of excellence in teaching at our university," Chancellor Glenn Boyce said. "She values every student and inspires them to become lifelong learners. Her collaborative approach to teaching and leadership has made an impact on her colleagues in writing and rhetoric.

"We are honored to recognize her extraordinary commitment to teaching excellence with this year's St. Amand award."

Forgette joined the Ole Miss faculty in 2005 after teaching writing, literature and speech in Ohio, New York and North Carolina. She has taught numerous writing classes and helps lead the Department of Writing and Rhetoric.

"This is such a wonderful place to teach if you love teaching, and I do," she said. "The thing that makes a good teacher is to be surrounded by other really good teachers who are willing to share their ideas and collaborate.

"People get the idea that a teacher goes in the classroom, shuts the door and that's it, and maybe some teachers do it that way. But for me, it's a team sport, and I happen to have – in this department and across the university – an amazing team."

The feeling is mutual, according to the multiple student and peer recommendations for the St. Amand award. Many of the nominations – which are anonymous – speak to Forgette's leadership and ability to share her passion with others.

"Mrs. Forgette has been my absolute favorite professor in my time at Ole Miss," one student wrote in their nomination letter. "Every morning, she is such a light and so energized to teach her students.

"In high school, I never felt that I was a good writer, but Mrs. Forgette has changed that for me. She has been a constant encourager that there is no 'right' way to write. She has inspired me to pursue writing as a new hobby and to be a lifelong learner."

In the classroom, Forgette fosters authenticity by creating a space where any young writer feels empowered to share their work. For her, creating that environment means she must be sincere and vulnerable, too.

"Part of the growth you get in college is finding your own voice, and then you work on that voice to make it as clear and as artful and as coherent as it can be without losing agency," she said. "I share a lot of my own writing, too.

"I write with them so that everybody can read everybody's writing and they can get over that fear."

Each student is different – different stories, different perspectives – and that's something to be nurtured in the classroom, Forgette said. By helping students find their voice, she creates a classroom where confidence can grow.

"Karen Forgette is an exemplary teacher who cares about each and every student," said Stephen Monroe, the department's chair. "She teaches with optimism, skill, and good humor. Her students respond by growing as writers and thinkers."

Forgette, who teaches students from various disciplines, said writing is for everyone. And whether her students are crafting essays, speeches or social media posts, she hopes they carry with them not just stronger writing skills, but a sense of agency, purpose and joy in the words they choose.

"To be a young person in Mississippi and in the United States, the ability to communicate your ideas is key to being able to flourish in society," she said. "I want my students to walk away with confidence in their ability to think critically and to communicate those thoughts clearly and with joy.

"When somebody really gets you because of something you wrote, it's a really joyful experience. I want them to have that."

Top: Karen Fatula Forgette (standing), assistant chair of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, teaches in a writing class in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Forgette is the winner of the 2025 St. Amand Outstanding Teacher Award. Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services