2026 Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Awards Announced
The Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences has recognized three graduate students for exceptional teaching and mentoring. Rachael Mulvihill of the Department of English is the 2026 Graduate Student Teaching Award recipient, and Hannah Fechtner of the Department of Philosophy and Kari Thomas of the Department of History are the 2026 Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award winners.
Learn more about the honorees:
Rachael Mulvihill
Graduate Student Teaching Award
What do Stardew Valley, fast fashion and The Hunger Games have in common? They all serve as lenses for learning in Rachael Mulvihill鈥檚 sought-after courses.
Mulvihill, a Ph.D. candidate in literary and cultural studies in the Department of English, has received the 2026 Dietrich College Graduate Student Teaching Award, which recognizes exceptional skill in curriculum development, teaching and mentoring.
鈥淚 find her to be an extraordinary teacher,鈥� said Jeffrey Williams, professor of English. 鈥淪he develops inventive and timely curricula and brings an encouraging and engaging pedagogical presence to the classroom.鈥�
Reading and Writing Beyond the Classroom
With seven years of teaching and 30 course sections under her belt, Mulvihill brings years of insight and creativity to the classroom. This shows up in the intriguing twists she puts on Dietrich College鈥檚 core courses. Her section of Interpretation and Argument, titled The Price of Creativity: Fashion, Capitalism and Cultural Value, asked students to explore how the production of goods is entangled with economic inequality. During Special Topics in Literature and Culture: Utopian Dreams and Dystopian Nightmares in Fiction, Film and Video Games, students used these mediums to examine how popular media reflects our fears of climate catastrophe, authoritarianism and economic inequality.
Mulvihill sees reading and writing as a means of empowering her students.
鈥淏y engaging with writing as a means of affecting change, whether in policy, workplace settings or civic life, students gain transferable skills that extend beyond the classroom,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y goal is to help them recognize the power of writing not just as an academic exercise, but as a means of shaping the world around them.鈥�
An Expert and an Ally
Mulvihill has developed a following among undergraduates. Junior Riona Duncan took a course for which Mulvihill served as TA. When she saw that Mulvihill was lead instructor on a course the following semester, she was determined to take it. 鈥淚 arranged my schedule so I鈥檇 be free,鈥� she said. Another student who was unable to fit Mulvihill鈥檚 course into their schedule says they stayed connected with the material by chatting with friends who were enrolled.
Kathy Newman, associate professor of English, taught Banned Books, a class for which Mulvihill served as a TA. Recalling the afternoon she announced that Mulvihill would be leading discussions, Newman said, 鈥淥ne of the students sitting a few feet away from me pumped her fist and mouthed the word 鈥榊ES!鈥欌��
Newman believes the connection between Mulvihill and her students comes from her ability to guide students while meeting them where they are. 鈥淪he is especially good at establishing herself simultaneously as an expert and as an ally,鈥� Newman said.
Mulvihill鈥檚 students agree.
鈥淚 personally struggle with asking for help,鈥� said English Department senior Zarmond Goodman. 鈥淚 never felt uncomfortable going to Rachael to ask clarifying questions.鈥�
History senior Quincy Mangi also felt safe enough to take risks in Mulvihill鈥檚 classes. Mangi said, 鈥淪he is able to handle difficult conversations that arise from class material with grace and understanding, ensuring that her classroom is always a safe space to make mistakes and learn from them.鈥�
鈥淩achael is constantly making an impact on the education of students. That mentality is one that every educator should have,鈥� Goodman said.
鈥� By Emily Nagin
Hannah Fechtner
Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award
Students and faculty alike are amazed by Hannah Fechtner鈥檚 ability to creatively teach difficult mathematical and philosophical concepts.
鈥淗annah has the well-deserved reputation of being one of the best TAs the Philosophy Department has ever had,鈥� said Christina Bjorndahl, assistant teaching professor of philosophy. 鈥淚mportantly, she does so without sacrificing her research, and incredibly, does so while engaging in a variety of mathematical outreach activities and supporting her fellow graduate students.鈥�
A Dietrich College Scholar and recipient of Dietrich College鈥檚 2026 Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award, Fechtner is pursuing a Ph.D. in logic in the Department of Philosophy. Her research focus is on formalization of braids and knots in Lean 鈥� a programming language and proof assistant. She鈥檚 currently an instructor for Undecidability & Incompleteness, has been the instructor for two sections of Logic and Proofs, and served as a TA for Concepts of Mathematics, Nature of Reason, and Dangerous Ideas in Science and Society.
鈥淓ven before the course began, it was clear that Hannah had 鈥榮uperstar TA鈥� material,鈥� said Clive Newstead, associate teaching professor of mathematical sciences. 鈥淲e met during the summer to discuss the course and her responsibilities as a TA, and I was struck by how thoroughly she had thought about mathematics and mathematical education.鈥�
Fechtner has prior experience teaching at the primary and secondary levels before coming to 黑料正能量, and her experience in the classroom clearly shows.
鈥淪he used props and play. She kept the classroom remarkably active and engaged, turning most recitations into games of her own invention and group activities,鈥� said Krzysztof Mierzewski, assistant professor of philosophy. 鈥淲hen the final exam approached, she organized competitive team quizzes on the course material, which was a highlight of the semester for several students.鈥�
Fechtner works with students beyond office hours to grasp difficult concepts and keeps faculty up-to-date on each student鈥檚 progress. She also meets students where they are, as reflected in many student testimonials submitted with her nomination materials. One student wrote, 鈥淗annah is without a doubt the best TA I have ever had. She is able to understand what you are struggling with when you are so lost that you don't even know how to ask the question. [鈥 She also never makes you feel stupid for not knowing something; she treats every question and confusion with equal merit.鈥�
Recognized as a leader among teaching assistants, Fechtner spearheaded the creation and maintenance of a shared drive of teaching materials for graduate students in the Philosophy Department. She has also served as a Graduate Student Assembly representative since 2023.
Beyond 黑料正能量 classrooms, Fechtner actively engages in outreach opportunities to introduce students of all ages to mathematical thinking and the areas of mathematics that underlie her own research.
鈥淗annah developed tactile ways to help children understand the fundamentals of the theory, using everything from Play-Doh to yarn,鈥� said Jeremy Avigad, Fechtner鈥檚 faculty adviser and professor of philosophy and mathematical sciences. 鈥淚 have never seen anyone pull off anything like it: she managed to make abstract research mathematics meaningful and fun for children.鈥�
In addition to regular volunteer work in the Pittsburgh region, she spent the summer of 2024 as a fellow at the Mathematics Outreach Seminar and Training program at the Museum of Mathematics in New York City.
鈥淔or Hannah, teaching is not just something one does in the classroom. Rather, she is a teacher, and this orientation imbues all of her scholarly and service activity,鈥� Bjorndahl said.
鈥� By Abby Simmons
Kari Thomas
Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award
Kari Thomas is a fifth-year doctoral student with a background in museum education and a master鈥檚 degree in public history from Rutgers University-Camden. At Carnegie Mellon, Thomas has been working on a dissertation about labor history and memory in the Blair Mountain region in West Virginia.
But those who have seen her teach might describe her in another way.
鈥淪he was simply Kari: smart, proactive, persistent and reliable,鈥� wrote , associate professor of history, in his letter recommending Thomas for the 2026 Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award. 鈥淪he was among the very best TAs I have ever worked with.鈥�
In fact, Sandage joked that he regretted telling his colleagues about Thomas because she is now in such high demand that he hasn鈥檛 gotten to work with her again.
Vincent Sha, Dietrich College鈥檚 associate dean for IT and operations, worked closely with Thomas on Sandage鈥檚 class, The Roots of Rock & Roll, which ended up being a big lift for the teaching assistants, due to its use of scaffolding approaches that incorporated large language models (LLMs) into the teaching process. Sha, too, noted how Thomas not only rapidly absorbed the concepts and synthesized them into designs, but how she emerged as a leader in the group.
鈥淚 believe that Kari will continue to be an innovator in education and an asset to any organization she works with,鈥� said Sha.
If those sentiments speak to the how of Thomas鈥檚 teaching prowess, Thomas鈥檚 own words speak to the why.
鈥淯ltimately, I encourage my students to take advantage of the flexibility of humanities classes, where there are no prescribed right or wrong answers, to stretch their thinking and try stepping out of their reference framework to approach a problem from a fresh perspective,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淚 believe history classes, in particular, can encourage students to question how the world they may take for granted came to be, and my pedagogy is geared toward creating opportunities for this to happen. The ability to question the status quo is paramount because the first step to imagining a better future is realizing that the past was never inevitable.鈥�
With graduation on the horizon, Thomas hopes to pursue a career that allows her to work closely with museums and other public history venues, whether that鈥檚 in a museum setting or academia.
鈥淎s a researcher in the digital/computational humanities, I think that field in particular has a lot to offer museums and archives in terms of research and digital exhibits that are more accessible to the public than traditional journals,鈥� said Thomas.
鈥� By Jason Bittel