Campus Life

Although his emphasis is on American literature and cultural studies, Dr. Eric Waggoner hopes that his students will take more than a working knowledge of authors and texts from his classes. “My job is to encourage students to understand the process of learning,” he explains. “We live in an Internet-inundated society where answers are supposedly easy to find. I encourage my students to develop a critical sense, to grapple with information. Real answers should be difficult.”

Dr. Waggoner graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan in 1992, the recipient of many awards such as the Pamela Thorn Humanities Award and the Outstanding English Graduate. Afterward he pursued his masters at Old Dominion University in Virginia followed by a doctorate at Arizona State University. He returned to Wesleyan after meeting English department chair, Dr. Mark Defoe, at a West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston.

Although he had some initial concerns about working alongside his former mentors, Dr. Waggoner quickly felt at ease. In fact, he now lists “exemplary colleagues” as his favorite part of Wesleyan. “Professors here are friendly and lively,” he explains. “Wesleyan’s English department offers a sense of community like none I’ve worked with before.”

Additionally, he values close interaction with his students, a benefit he attributes to the small school environment. “When I walk into a classroom and see 20 faces getting into Moby Dick, that’s a tremendous charge for me” he says. “I love when students challenge me during discussion. Then I know we are both thinking.”

The multi-talented English professor is active not only in the academic classroom but throughout the Wesleyan community. In the spring of 2005, he starred in a student-led performance of Naked Lunch. The director, James Holland, was not an English major but had been enrolled in Dr. Waggoner’s Contemporary American Fiction class in the fall of 2004. Choosing one of the texts from that class as his senior directing project in theater, Holland asked him to play one of the lead roles. He enthusiastically agreed.

Dr. Waggoner is also seen regularly playing guitar at the Cats Claw with fellow associate professor of English, Dr. Boyd Creasman. Known as “The Frets,” the two sing and write songs in a “mix of styles.” In addition to playing on campus, they have performed at the Randolph County Community Arts Center and were featured as the opening act at the Colgate Country Showdown in Elkins, WV.

“Academic study often acquires this reputation for being dry and boring,” Dr. Waggoner says. “But I think it’s just the opposite. Learning can be exhilarating, almost terrifying. Becoming knowledgeable forces you to rethink ideas that you’ve never had shaken in a meaningful way before.” He believes “critical engagement” is the most important part of the college classroom and says that “academic relationships can be the deepest and most far-reaching.”

During his three years at Wesleyan, Dr. Waggoner has published several academic articles including his two most recent essays on Native American and Appalachian literature. In addition to academic work, he writes about music, books, and films for several nationally-published magazines and newsweeklies.

You can reach Dr. Waggoner at waggoner@wvwc.edu.