Michigan State University Professor Mary Juzwik received a William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award, one of the university’s highest honors. The award recognizes her sustained contributions to research, teaching, and outreach, as well as her leadership in English education. Juzwik’s interdisciplinary scholarship and commitment to mentorship have shaped both the field and the next generation of educators.
“Dr. Juzwik has distinguished herself through a rare and powerful combination of scholarly imagination, methodological rigor, pedagogical excellence and service-driven leadership,” wrote University Distinguished Professor Patricia Edwards and Professor Anne-Lise Halvorsen in their nomination letter. “She represents the best of MSU — an intellectual who is also a builder of programs, a mentor of people, and a committed citizen of our academic and public communities.”
A former K-12 educator, Juzwik joined the MSU Department of Teacher Education in 2004 as an Assistant Professor. She became a full professor in the College of Education in 2015 and added a part-time appointment in the Department of English in the College of Arts & Letters in 2016.
Juzwik is an internationally recognized for her leadership in and beyond English education. She’s well known for her transformative, interdisciplinary work on dialogic teaching and writing and innovative inquiries into the ways religion and religious ethnonationalism are impacting English teaching and learning in U.S. public schools.
“Dr. Juzwik’s leadership strengthens the intellectual fabric of our community in ways that are both visible and enduring,” Edwards and Halvorsen continued in their letter. “She approaches program building as a scholarly task: mapping curricular aims to emerging research, faculty strengths, and student needs so that courses speak to one another and to the moment.”
Her award-winning teaching record has expanded her impact across programs. She models generosity and collaborative intellectual partnership with students and colleagues alike, writing with graduate and undergraduate students for leading journals and publications in the field. As one colleague has written: “her deep mentoring of doctoral students has resulted in an exceptional record of scholarly capacity-building in the field.”
“She represents the best of MSU — an intellectual who is also a builder of programs, a mentor of people, and a committed citizen of our academic and public communities.”
Drs. Patricia Edwards and Anne-Lise Halvorsen
In addition, Juzwik’s interdisciplinary research has earned widespread recognition in the social sciences and humanities, with her publications being highly and increasingly cited by scholars and practitioners around the world. Her work has contributed to improving English language arts classroom instruction through funded research projects, such as those culminating in her book for teachers: Inspiring Dialogue: Talking to Learn in the English Classroom (Teachers College Press, 2013).
Juzwik is also known for addressing challenging and pressing educational issues. She co-edited the Research in the Teaching of English, the flagship journal of her academic field, from 2013-2018. In addition, she co-founded and co-directs the MSU Holocaust and Genocide Curriculum for Gen Alpha teacher fellowship program for Michigan teachers, which will launch its third cohort this summer.
Faculty from across the country joined Edwards and Halvorsen in writing nomination letters for Juzwik, including Loukia K. Sarroub, the Melvin C. and Jane N. Nore Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“Professor Juzwik’s teaching is characterized by intellectual rigor, care, and dialogic engagement. Her courses in English education, literacy, discourse studies, and religion in education embody the kind of reflective and transformative pedagogy that has made MSU’s Teacher Education [department] a national leader,” wrote Sarroub, a 2000 MSU graduate of the College of Education’s then-named Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy program. The college now offers the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education Ph.D. and Education Policy Ph.D. programs among its many doctoral programs.
Several other scholars wrote enthusiastic letters of support for Juzwik’s collaborative spirit, mentorship, teaching, research, and outreach.
“Professor Juzwik’s teaching is characterized by intellectual rigor, care, and dialogic engagement. Her courses in English education, literacy, discourse studies, and religion in education embody the kind of reflective and transformative pedagogy that has made MSU’s Teacher Education [department] a national leader.”
Loukia K. Sarroub, Melvin C. and Jane N. Nore Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
“[Juzwik] is a scholar of consequence whose research is changing how we think about the role of education,” Edwards and Halvorsen wrote in the conclusion of their letter. “[She is also] a teacher of uncommon skill whose classrooms and fellowship equip educators for ethically demanding work; a mentor whose students have become leaders in their own right; and a university citizen whose judgment, dedication, and collaborative spirit elevate the communities she serves.”
Presented annually to members of the tenure-system faculty, the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award recognizes their outstanding overall contributions to the intellectual life of the university. Awards are based on a comprehensive and sustained record of scholarly excellence in research and/or creative activities, instruction, and outreach. Up to 10 MSU faculty receive the honor annually.
Juzwik and the other 2025-2026 recipients, including Thomas Berding, Professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, were recognized at the All-University Awards Ceremony on April 7 at the Breslin Center.
By Lauren Knapp and originally published by MSU’s College of Education
