When walking through the third floor of Buhl Hall there are many doors of the English department. A lot of the doors have things on them such as schedules, whiteboards, inspirational posters and some of them are blank. A lot of the third floor of Buhl is the same color scheme that can be seen while walking through the halls – except for one door. That door leads into room 309 where you can find the office of Dr. Jamie Dessart, English professor at Waynesburg.

Dessart’s door is full of anything from pop culture to political comic strips.

Dessart has taken quite an interest in pop culture and this year, like in years past, she will be going to the Pop Culture Association national conference in Indianapolis with five students who will be presenting topics to audiences for her fourth time.

“It’s great for them in terms of exposure, it’s also good for them to see how their ideas stack up against other people’s,” said Dessart.

The students going are Shawn White, Zac Yonko, Rachael Crosbie, Tessa Masula and Steven Caumo. They will be presenting on a very broad spectrum of topics and ideas.

“We have a number of people in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Division, we have people discussing gender in Harry Potter, mythology in the legend of Zelda, we even have somebody presenting on Riverdale,” Dessart said. “The students are taking classic ideas of literature and applying them to pop culture.”

The PCA is a chance at exposure not only for Waynesburg, but it is a chance to get exposure for Waynesburg’s English department. As a matter of fact, Waynesburg has become a household name at the PCA.

“Last year the head of the SciFi and Fantasy Division said to me that Waynesburg is single handedly reinvigorating the PCA especially the Science Fiction and Fantasy,” said Dessart. “The  conference really likes having us and they know our name now. Our name is really getting out there, Waynesburg is a small campus that is known for getting national attention from its accomplishments.”

The attention that the English department is receiving may even create a new minor at the university, according to Dessart. “We would like to find a way to get a focus in pop culture, get a pop culture minor,” said Dessart. “It would make us very unique as a university from that standpoint.”

The PCA gives the students a chance to not only have an impact in Indianapolis at the conference but afterwards when the students attempt to build on the already impressive portfolios they have.

“We have had some individuals go into grad  programs. We’ve had two people get into Bowling Green State which has one of the top pop culture programs in the nation. One thing that comes out of it is helping students focus on what they want after they graduate,” said Dessart.

Professor Dessart and the five students will leave in March the week before Easter and when they return the students will present at a time to be determined in front of the people of Waynesburg.