Trey Conatser, PhD
Assistant Provost for Teaching & Learning | Director
Dr. Trey Conatser is assistant provost for teaching and learning, director of CELT, and an affiliate in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies. He represents UK’s educational mission within and beyond the University, and he oversees CELT operations in pursuit of innovative, effective, and engaging teaching and learning at UK. He has led a range of initiatives addressing artificial intelligence, transdisciplinary education, durable career skills, scholarship of teaching and learning, learners' changing needs, and other critical opportunities and issues for higher education. He has overseen a significant growth of CELT's reach and impact; now serving UK's education mission for fifteen years, CELT actively collaborates with all 19 colleges and a wide range of other academic and administrative support units across the enterprise.
Trey holds a PhD in English from The Ohio State University with a specialization in rhetoric and writing, digital humanities, and teaching and learning. At Ohio State he began working in educational development as part of the storied Digital Media and Composition (DMAC) Institute. Broadly, his research has examined technology-enhanced learning, methods of teaching writing and communication skills, and the role of humanities education. Some of Trey's work can be found in the Palgrave Handbook of Digital and Public Humanities, College Teaching, the Journal of Digital Humanities, and Computers and Composition Online, with forthcoming work on topics such as the unessay and generative AI, student motivation during the pandemic, the past and future of computer labs in writing instruction, asynchronous faculty development, and commonplaces about AI in education. Trey has given workshops, presentations, and keynotes at regional and national venues on various issues in educational development, teaching and learning, and the future of higher education.
At the University of Kentucky, Trey teaches courses in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, the Lewis Honors College, and the Graduate Certificate for College Teaching and Learning. He has also taught courses on literature, creative writing, and college writing. He is a 2025-2026 Gaines Center for the Humanities Teaching Affiliate.
- PhD English, The Ohio State University
- CELTic since 2016