Story and photos by Logan Jackson
Chris Josey’s teaching efforts have been recognized often throughout his two decades as an educator. He said his most recent award may be one of his favorites. Josey, an associate teaching professor of communication, was named the 2025 Honors College Outstanding Faculty. Nominees for the award are solicited from Honors students across campus and chosen by a selection committee.
“This award really means a lot to me,” Josey said. “I love interacting with Honors students, and it’s really gratifying to know that they appreciate me enough to nominate for this award. As faculty, you always hope you’re making a positive impact, and I’m very appreciative to know that the students are getting something out of our interactions.”
Josey has been incredibly active as an affiliate faculty in the Honors College. Along with teaching numerous Departmental Honors courses, Josey recently taught the Honors Extended One Read (now called Honors Book Club) class as a Tarkow Teaching Fellow.
“The Honors College has always gone out of their way to make me feel like I’m truly part of the college,” Josey said. “It’s become a second department for me. I’ve had so many wonderful opportunities to work with students and other faculty.”
Josey has led one of the ASH Scholars research teams for several years and mentors students who are part of the Cherng Summer Scholars program. Both ASH and the Cherng Summer Scholars program offer vital research opportunities to Mizzou students.
“The Honors College – and Mizzou overall – have some awesome undergraduate research opportunities,” Josey said. “I think it’s very important for students to be able to get some type of research experience, whether it be with beakers in a lab or running a content analysis tied to journalism. For me, the most important thing about these opportunities are the skills behind the research. It’s great to meet the students where they are and build their confidence.”
Research has been a common theme throughout Josey’s academic career. He’s earned several grants tied to his interest areas, which include several topics tied to the media, such as the social and psychological effects of the mass media.
“My research interest really started because I was trying to understand why I thought the way I did,” Josey said. “I grew up in rural Indiana, and when I got to college, I realized there were all kinds of viewpoints and experiences, and a lot of those opinions were developed through the media that a person consumed. I found that fascinating.”
Becoming a professor wasn’t originally part of Josey’s plan when he began his degree at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He was much more interested in becoming a lawyer, a doctor or a psychologist. After finishing his bachelor’s degree in speech communication at Bradley, Josey earned a master’s degree in speech communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He would eventually earn a Ph.D. in speech communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, too.
It was during graduate school that Josey’s interest in teaching began to be piqued.
“Early on, I started getting solid teaching evaluations and was being nominated for some awards,” Josey said. “Teaching was really starting to fill up my buckets and give me so much energy. I enjoyed working with the students and realized this was something I could make a career out of.”
Josey joined Mizzou in 2016. Along with his work in the Honors College, Josey serves as the director for undergraduate research in the Department of Communication, as well the director of the honors program in the department. He was named the Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year in 2022 and was part of the William T. Kemper Fellow cohort in 2023.
As the Honors Outstanding Faculty honoree, Josey will speak during the Honors commencement ceremony.
“I’m definitely excited to wear my doctoral regalia – it’s not something I get to do very often,” Josey said.