Felicia Karas - The Writing Program

Felicia KarasWriting Instructor II
Office: Engineering Hall 105H
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 work centers on academic support and writing center administration, classroom discourse, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in student-centered higher education spaces. An avid creative writer, Felicia is currently working on a series of feminist romance novels set in academia. (If you know any publishers interested in this type of work, drop her a line!). Felicia lives in Butte with her son, Oliver, and spouse, Aaron. In her spare time, Felicia loves all things DIY, thrifting, walking, and traveling near and far. Her ‘fun fact’ of the moment is that she is a very inexperienced taekwondo referee and volunteers to ref at her son’s tournaments.

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

Scholarship

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

  • Writing 101: College Writing I

  • Writing 121: Introduction to Technical Writing

  • Writing 201: College Writing II

  • Writing 321: Advanced Technical Writing

  • Writing 322: Advanced Business Writing

  • Honors Program Seminar