Awards & Honors
Knight wins A&S outstanding teacher in humanities
The College of Arts & Sciences announced the 2025 award winners for outstanding teaching at its March general faculty meeting. The teaching award recipients exemplify the ambitious innovation, caring mentorship, and unrelenting dedication that set faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences apart from their peers.
Amy Knight, Communication & Media Studies instructor II, was awarded the 2025 A&S outstanding teacher in the humanities for her inspiring work transforming the lives of students.
Knight has been recognized at every level—in her department, by the university, and nationally—as a master teacher, winning the department’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, the National Society of Leadership & Success’s Excellence in Teaching Award and being named Faculty Advisor of the Year by Lambda Sigma.
Across the range of courses that she teaches, from Introduction to Communication to Small Group Communication and Interpersonal Communication, Knight designs classes that one of her colleagues describes as “a blueprint for best practices.” Her classes regularly incorporate interactive, hands-on activities that facilitate practical application of theoretical concepts; service-learning projects and learning skill development; seamless incorporation of technological innovations; and, perhaps most important, the intentional and ongoing development of relationships with her students structured by mutual respect and support.
Knight’s students offer almost universal praise for her teaching. One writes, “When I first enrolled in one of Ms. Knight’s communication classes, I was taking it as an elective. Approximately two weeks into the course, I changed my major to communication because I fell in love with the material I was learning as well as her style of teaching. She is the most engaging, energetic professor I have ever had. She changed college for me, and she changed my future.”
“Excellent teaching is hard work, and I’m especially honored to recognize Amy who embodies the transformative potential of teaching in Arts & Sciences,” said Melanie Loehwing, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the college.
As the home of the university’s liberal arts mission, A&S does more than just prepare future professionals for careers. We also educate students for the shared life of democratic community, and we help to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and the sense of ethics and justice that we hope will inform their personal and professional lives for many years to come.