Felicia Karas - The Writing Program

Felicia KarasWriting Instructor II
Office: Library 215
Phone: 406-496-4204
Email: fkaras@mtech.edu

About

Felicia Karas is an instructor in the Writing Program at Montana Tech. She holds a PhD in Higher Education from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of New Mexico. She has worked as an instructor and administrator at two-year and four-year institutions in New Mexico, Minnesota, and Montana. Her scholarly interests center on classroom discourse analysis, college student success and metacognitive skill development, equity in higher education, and AI in the writing process. On campus, Felicia is co-chair of the AI Working Group, a member of the National Student Awards Committee, and an instructor in the SHARP academic bridge program. An avid creative writer, Felicia is always novels in her spare time (she has four rough drafts) and hopes to get published or make the jump into indie publishing. But first, revision! Felicia lives in Butte with her son, Oliver, and spouse, Aaron Frale (who you might know as Tech’s Director of Career Services). In her spare time, Felicia loves all things DIY, thrifting, walking, and traveling near and far.

Career in Brief

  • Instructor II, Writing Program, Montana Tech, 2024-present
  • Visiting Instructor I, Writing Program, Montana Tech, 2022-2024
  • Writing Center Director, Montana State University Billings, 2019-2022
  • Graduate Instructor and Research Assistant, University of Minnesota, 2014-2019
  • Regular Part-Time Faculty, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Central New Mexico Community College, 2011-2014
  • Student Resources Advocate, Carrington College – Albuquerque, 2010-2011
  • Graduate Instructor and Research Assistant, University of New Mexico, 2006-2009

Scholarships

(2026, April). Developing an AI use transparency culture through brainstorming in upper division writing courses. Innovation session presentation at the AAC&U Conference on Learning and Student Success (CLASS) in Tucson, AZ.

(2026, January). Developing an AI use transparency culture through brainstorming in upper division writing courses. Presentation at Be Curious: AI Symposium hosted by the University of Montana in Missoula, MT.

Karas, F. & McSweyn, A. (2023, November). Mission statements and equity values in learning and writing centers: A mixed methods analysis. Research paper presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) annual meeting in Minneapolis, MN.

(2021, April). Using Bakhtinian classroom discourse analysis methodology to identify centrifugal and centripetal forces in academic probation discourse. Roundtable presented at American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2021 virtual annual meeting.

(2019, November). The right way and the balanced way: A discourse analysis of curriculum prompts and instructor/student conversations in an academic probation intervention course. Research paper presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) annual meeting in Portland, OR.

(2017, February). Normative success discourse in an academic probation classroom: An exploratory study. Research paper presented at the Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD) Student Research Conference (refereed) at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN.

Karas, F., Sopdie, E., & Himmerick, J. (2016, November). Transparency and public utility: Rethinking the role of accreditation in state-level higher education policy. Roundtable presented at the Council on Public Policy & Higher Education (CPPHE) pre-conference at the ASHE annual meeting in Columbus, OH.

Haynes, M., Karas, F., Dillon, D., & Hurkadli, A. (2016, April). Implementation of a developmental evaluation framework to explore an alternative teacher licensure partnership program. Roundtable presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in Washington D.C.

Courses Taught

  • Writing 100: Writing Fundamentals (Co-Requisite and Writing for the Trades)

  • Writing 101: College Writing I

  • Writing 121: Introduction to Technical Writing

  • Writing 201: College Writing II

  • Writing 321W: Advanced Technical Writing

  • Writing 322W: Advanced Business Writing

  • Honors Program Seminar