Chapman University has announced the recipients of the 2024 James L. Doti Outstanding Graduate Awards, the university’s highest honor for graduate students.
This year’s honorees are Katelyn Kitchens, a doctoral candidate in education, and Audrey Fong, a candidate for a dual Master of Arts in English and Master of Fine Arts in creative writing.
The Doti Awards are bestowed annually to an outstanding graduating master’s and doctoral student with a distinguished record of academic accomplishment, scholarly/creative activity and/or service. The award recipients’ names are permanently inscribed on the Doti Award trophy, which incorporates artist Nick Hernandez’s sculpture Emergence, on display in Argyros Forum. The recipients receive a desk-size copy of the trophy with a cash award of $1,000 and are recognized at their college’s commencement ceremony.
Katelyn Kitchens, Ph.D.
Education, Attallah College of Educational Studies
Attallah’s faculty say Kitchens is a brilliant and exceptionally outstanding doctoral student. The faculty describes them as a highly ethical, committed and intellectually rigorous scholar-activist and teacher.
Kitchens successfully defended their Ph.D. dissertation in March 2024 on “New Ways of Being White: White Families Striving to Cultivate Antiracist Familial Cultures,” an expansive work based on a critical ethnographic study of white families committed to raising anti-racist children. The work is important, theoretically grounded and methodologically rigorous. Their chosen dissertation topic reflects their long-standing commitment to anti-racism. As a white person, Kitchens has personal experience with whiteness studies and engaging with others in anti-racist work.
Within the doctoral program, they developed a strong foundation in the theories that frame their work, including Marxist humanism, critical pedagogies and theories of whiteness. Kitchens also has strong instincts toward decolonizing and humanizing praxis. They are well recognized among faculty and peers as highly ethical and collaborative and evidence a commitment to the growth and learning of all those around them. Kitchens is especially committed to equity for racialized students and to the preservation and restoration of the cultural strengths, epistemologies and resources of historically oppressed communities.
These strengths, along with their excellent writing skills, have led to a significant record of emerging scholarship, research and teaching pursuits. Currently, Kitchens is co-authoring several research manuscripts. Kitchens has already published an impressive six publications (one is in press) and is planning a book based on their dissertation. Their scholarship is highly collaborative with Indigenous colleagues and other people of color, evidencing allyship with these communities. Kitchens’ numerous presentations at conferences and community settings exemplify a keen awareness and commitment to engage with the community beyond the academy.
Kitchens is also a gifted educator of children and adults. They have taught numerous courses in higher education, and faculty are certain that this has included challenging coursework, high expectations and humanizing pedagogy. A faculty mentor shared that conversations with Kitchens revealed their tremendous love and empathy for all peoples.
It’s notable that in a world where Indigenous communities are often wary of the dominant group, Kitchens has been invited to teach and work at an Indigenous tribal school. They recognize and value the opportunity that has been given to them and are continuously reflecting on their responsibility as a white person to that community and its peoples. Kitchens’ previous work in Montessori schools has also provided important insights into humanizing, democratic and life-giving pedagogies that inform their development. Furthermore, Kitchens has a strong social justice background. They served on the Montessori for Social Justice Board of Directors for five years.
At Chapman, Kitchens has been an active member of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project, supported guest talks and co-led teach-ins during the Black Lives Matter protests. Attallah faculty believe Kitchens is an outstanding student with a brilliant future ahead.
Audrey Fong, MA/MFA
English and Creative Writing, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Wilkinson’s faculty say Fong’s academic excellence and professional leadership are exceptional. She has used the dual program to set her own ambitious professional path. Importantly, Fong has used her own ongoing learning growth to contribute to the university and to the larger literary culture. She is the only graduate student who has taught Asian American Studies at Chapman University, and she’s also a graduate student instructor in English. She continues to open students to new ideas and texts and also works with Stephanie Takaragawa, associate professor of sociology, across disciplines on a variety of projects and programming.
Fong’s creative and scholarly achievements are unusually strong for a graduate student. She has presented at the Asian American Studies Conference and the College English Association Conference, in addition to others. She will present again this spring at the Asian American Studies Conference and is making a name for herself in that field. She also has a chapter forthcoming in an anthology about food and memory, an essay published in the literary journal South Dakota Review, and she’s placed several interviews with Asian American writers in Adroit Journal.
This important cultural work and her entrepreneurial spirit led Fong to found her own journal, Soapberry Review. Anna Leahy, director of the MFA in creative writing program, shared that she is awestruck by Fong’s ability to launch this project while excelling at all the other work we expect of graduate students and instructors. This project focuses on reviews of books and interviews with Asian American writers, filling a void in literary culture rather than replicating existing projects. Fong has encouraged other MFA students and alumni to read Asian American books and submit reviews for publication at Soapberry Review.
Faculty point to Fong’s mature understanding of a scholar-writer’s practice. She has a keen ability to turn conference presentations into journal publications, a professional practice that few graduate students in the humanities recognize and embrace. Also, she turns practical experience — the marketing internship with Red Hen Press and the social media work at UCI — into original intellectual and cultural production. She recognizes that her accomplishments as a scholar-writer have the power to change culture.
To continue honing her craft, Fong is entering the Ph.D. program at the University of Southern California, another program that combines creative writing and literature. Wilkinson’s faculty is convinced that will lead to even more achievement.
