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Growing up, Katarina Yuan never pictured herself becoming an English professor — even though she spent part of her childhood devouring J.R.R. Tolkien books, and even though one of her college majors was English. Yuan’s other major was biology, and her dream was to become a biologist.

“That didn’t happen,” said the self-described nerd. “I loved reading biology articles, but working with numbers for a living just wasn’t for me.”

Now, as a UCLA doctoral student, not only is Yuan on a path toward teaching English literature for a living, but she has been honored by UCLA with a 2026 Distinguished Teaching Award. Yuan is one of six UCLA teaching assistants to be honored this year.

Yuan said she draws from her own journey to inspire UCLA undergrads embarking on theirs. One class she teaches is Critical Reading and Writing, which introduces first- and second-year students to literary analysis, helping students improve their writing and comprehension skills.

Yuan has taught the course since 2022, but over the past few years, she has begun to incorporate more nontraditional texts into her syllabus — “Dungeons & Dragons” manuals and fan fiction, for example — aiming to include material that speaks to students’ different backgrounds and interests. She found the change helped students better connect and engage with the work.

“I think the selection of texts is inherently very personal,” Yuan said. “I’m choosing texts that I wish I had read when I was an undergrad. Other times, I’ll bring in a text that I don’t have much of a personal connection to, but that I know other people love, and that’s my personal connection.

“And sometimes a student will be talking about one of the books and get emotional, and I’m like, ‘OK, the novel’s doing the work that it’s supposed to do.’ I handle that by remembering all the novels that did that to me, too.”

In her teaching, Yuan is guided by what her students say they want to focus on — whether it’s crafting a thesis statement or dissecting a poem — and often creates lesson plans focusing on those goals.

Lilia Tomoff, who took Yuan’s class in winter quarter, said Yuan’s teaching has had an impact far beyond the course itself.

“Under Katarina’s guidance, I grew so much as a close reader and as a writer,” Tomoff said. “She also took the time to talk to me about my long-term academic plans and suggest how I can cultivate my interest in both the sciences and the humanities to someday make my own meaningful contribution to my field.”

Yuan said she is grateful for her students and she takes pride in seeing them connect with reading and writing on a more personal level. Above all, the one-time aspiring biologist is inspired by the opportunity to help her students plant the seeds of inquisitiveness they need to grow academically at UCLA and in their lives beyond graduation.

Photo credit: Sean Brenner/UCLA Humanities