college Archives – James D. Hogan

After

On September 11, 2026

I was a junior in college on September 11. Coming back to work at the university where I completed my undergraduate degree has brought plenty of déjà vu moments—not to mention the surreal feeling of seeing my children walk the sidewalks I once walked as a student—but today, twenty-five years after the attacks, I became aware that there was a lot of time and space between then and now.

All of it can be classified as after.

Just as there were on the fifth and tenth and twentieth anniversaries of that clear-blue Tuesday, today’s news has featured a parade of recollections, photos and videos just as fresh in my mind as they were a quarter century ago. There have been a few stories I hadn’t heard, new chapters to consider.

For the first time, there is a focus on the generation that was born and has come of age in the span of days since our national frame was shattered.

Advent 1: Point Nemo

By James D. Hogan

On December 2, 2024

In writing

When lighthouses go dark.

In the early dark of December, I recall walking down to St. David’s in Cullowhee. I was a college student, a junior I think, and it was Advent. My friend Brittany had been invited to read a meditation she’d composed, and we were both going.

These meditations were a weekly occurrence at St. David’s. We arrived in the cold, entering into the nave directly from the red door at the side. Inside was a narrow room with a vaulted ceiling. The Advent evening prayer services were candlelit; there was a podium in the aisle for reading. A chest organ at the back provided some music. Dr. Lillian Pearson–Kelly’s piano professor–usually supplied.

I cannot remember the subject of Brittany’s meditation. I can only guess it was something literary. (We were English majors.) But the reason I was there in the first place had more to do with the rector who led the parish.

What’s up, Doc?

By James D. Hogan

On January 31, 2024

In writing

FAITH

In which the Apostle Paul takes a baseball bat to the knees of the wise…

This week, I defended my dissertation before a committee of four professors and administrators. In the course of a short hour and a half, I presented them with the problem my research addressed, the research questions I established, a review of the literature I researched about the problem, the methods I used to conduct my own research, my findings, and a summation of what those findings mean as answers to the questions I’d asked. It was the culmination of nearly four years of studying, taking courses, and working independently.

The process goes like this: we logged on (my committee met by zoom, because we were all geographically scattered), the committee quickly gathered independent of me to discuss my dissertation, I presented, and then the committee asked questions of my research. (This is the part where I “defended” my work.) Following that, the committee broke away again to discuss whether or not they felt my work met their expectations–and when they returned, they each had changed their zoom backgrounds to congratulate me. I had earned my doctorate.

It was quite a moment.

Tag: college Page 1 of 3