Dr. Wendell M. “Whit” Jones, Jr.

Biography

Dr. Whit Jones is a professor of English at Bryan College, where he has taught a wide range of courses for over thirty-one years. He grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and completed his undergraduate degree in English Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Driven by his passion for literature, he pursued his graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he conducted research on Southern Novelist Walker Percy, earning recognition for his dissertation. Dr. Jones has published various literary works, including articles and entries in reference books. Alongside his academic pursuits, he has actively served his church community and taught Sunday School classes. Together with his wife, he has home-schooled their four children and cherishes their expanding family, filled with beloved grandchildren. Throughout his time at Bryan College, Dr. Jones has found joy in fostering strong teacher-student relationships and integrating Christian faith with his academic subjects, emphasizing the significance of literature in teaching universal human truth.

Publications, Research, & Editing

• American Literature, Apologia, June 2016
• Biographical Sketches on Poet and Essayist Charles Woodmason and Poet John Beecher for Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary. LSU Press 2004.
• “Stoicism,” “Honor,” and “Town and Country” for The Companion to Southern Literature. LSU Press 2002
• “Holding Up the Revealing Lamp: The Myth of Psyche in Edith Wharton’s The Reef.” College Literature February 1992
• “The Poverty of Gnosticims or the Riches of Christ.” Editorial in The Crucible: A Journal for Christian Graduate Students. Summer 1991

Conference & Workshop Presentations

• Christianity and Literature Session at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (presentation: "Finding the Logos: Walker Percy’s Diagnosis of Postmodern Linguistic Relativism").
• South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature (presentation: "Redeeming Literary Theory from Derridean Despair: Reasoning within the Bounds of Faith").
• Southeastern Conference on Christianity and Literature (presentation: "Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as a Model of How to Negotiate the Intersection of Secular and Christian Culture").
• East/Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature (presentation: "Eudora Welty’s Synthesis of Pagan and Christian Ideals of Heroism in ‘A Worn Path’").