LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 3, 2024) — Daria Goncharova, Ph.D., a May 2024 doctoral graduate from the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of nine people to receive an University of Kentucky’s 2024-25 Outstanding Teaching Award.
The awards recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. Goncharova is one of three winners in Category 3, which honors teaching assistants.
“I am honored to be one of the recipients of the 2024 Provost Award,” Goncharova said. “Having experienced different approaches to education in Russia and the United States, I see critical inquiry as a cornerstone of my teaching philosophy. My goal is to provide students with a diverse, inclusive and collaborative environment in which we can examine how narratives — literary, cinematic and cultural — shape our perception of the world and our place in it.”
As a writer, educator and scholar, Goncharova’s area of expertise lies in 20th- and 21st-century American literature and film with an emphasis on the intersection of space, citizenship and whiteness — a focus largely informed by her own experience as an international scholar residing in the United States. She has published in Adaptation and the edited collection “Post45 vs. The World” and has publications forthcoming in New Review of Film & Television Studies, Literature/Film Quarterly and Contemporary Literature.
From 2017 until 2023, she was an instructor of record at UK, leading two sections per semester of 24-30 students each. Her film courses and first-year composition classes promoted accessibility, equity and diversity by incorporating free digital tools, drawing on current events and centering historically marginalized voices and narratives.
Her student-centered, inclusive styles have been recognized with the Association of Emeriti Faculty Endowed Fellowship, the 2023 Jean G. Pival Outstanding Teaching Assistant in the Department of English, the 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies and first place in the university-wide 2023 GradTeach Live! competition.
“Daria’s work ethic, attention to detail and capacity to formulate ideas in compelling prose testify to her qualifications as a teacher as well as a scholar, as evidenced by her array of teaching awards,” said Alan Nadel, the William T. Bryan Professor in the Department of English, who nominated Goncharova.
Before receiving her Ph.D. this spring, Goncharova completed her in M.A. in English, also at UK, in 2018. This August, she will begin the position of assistant professor in English at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia.
“I am grateful to my departments — English and WRD studies — for supporting me in accomplishing this goal, and I am thankful to UK’s many partners – UK Libraries, CELT and the Writing Center — for helping me grow as an educator,” Goncharova said.
***
This year’s Outstanding Teaching Awards were given to six faculty and three graduate teaching assistants. Each winner received an award certificate, a commemorative engraved gift and a cash award in recognition of their teaching excellence at a campus ceremony on April 25. Read more here.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.