Theatre Professor Casey Sams has been named a James R. Cox Professor by the Provost of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The award recognizes faculty members for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.

“It is a special honor to be granted an award based on all three areas of academic endeavor,” Sams said. “Receiving this award inspires me to continue contributing  to the UT community through all three of these pathways.” 

She joined the UT Department of Theatre in 2003 and teaches movement, acting, and period dance, as well as courses for the new musical theatre minor. “UT hasn’t regularly offered dance technique classes since the minor in dance ended in 2008, and it is exciting to be a part of bringing that discipline back to the campus community,” Sams said. 

She became associate head of the department in 2020, after 14 years as head of undergraduate studies. She also served as interim head of the department during the 2021-2022 academic year. 

During the 2025-2026 season of the Clarence Brown Theatre (CBT), Sams served as director for Sense and Sensibility and choreographer for A Christmas Carol. In the upcoming season she will direct The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and choreograph both A Christmas Carol and She Loves Me. Her work on past CBT productions includes Peter and the Starcatcher; Failure, A Love Story; She Kills Monsters; A Year with Frog and Toad; and The Who’s Tommy. 

Established in 2002 with gifts from Cox, a Knoxville native, the professorship is awarded for three-year terms to UT faculty in the arts, theater, biological and physical sciences, architecture, and forestry industries.

“The Cox Professorship has been held by some of the most accomplished educators, scholars, and artists on our campus,” said Beauvais Lyons, divisional dean for arts and humanities. “I am pleased that Casey Sams joins this roster of past recipients based on her transformative work with both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as her distinguished record as a director and choreographer.” 

Sams’s passion for movement education was ignited by training in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA). “LMA empowers personal creativity while simultaneously developing deep observational and analytical skills,” she said. “It is the wellspring for my work both in the classroom and on the stage.”

In addition to her work for the CBT, the professional theatre on the UT campus, Sams recently choreographed a production of Cabaret at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. 

Her work as a director, choreographer, and intimacy choreographer also extends to several other regional theatres, including Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Roundhouse Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory, Virginia Stage Company, and Great River Shakespeare Festival. Her regional theatre credits include choreographing different versions of A Christmas Carol as well A Wrinkle in Time, Into the Woods, Assassins, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Comedy of Errors. 

“The University of Tennessee is honored to have faculty of your caliber on our campus, and we look forward to the continued excellence and creative innovation your work will bring to our community in the years ahead,” UT Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor John P. Zomchick wrote to Sams in announcing the professorship.

by Amy Beth Miller