Matt Hoffman’s Parting Words: A Long-Time Teacher Takes his Leave from WWC
Iris Seaton | May 3, 2022
Special to The Echo
After seven years as a professor at Warren Wilson College, Matt Hoffman is taking his leave. Hoffman served as a professor in religious studies, leader of the Spiritual Life Crew, and coordinator of service-learning with Root Cause Farm and Bounty & Soul.
Hoffman will be moving to the Washington D.C. area, as his partner accepted her dream job at the Interfaith Families Project of Greater Washington. He will join her and their 15-month-old son after finishing out his final semester teaching at WWC. Hoffman took on hybrid classes this semester in order to maintain connections with the school and looks forward to staying in one place after closing out the semester.
Though Hoffman is eager to finish the trips back and forth between D.C. and Swannanoa, he expressed his love for the WWC community, and the importance of the role it played in his life.
“I kind of joke, honestly, that I feel like I should get an honorary Wilson degree,” Hoffman said. “Not because I want the prestige or a piece of paper, but I feel like I grew up here as a professor. The ethos and the mentality of the college shaped me and how I approach teaching. And I'm forever changed.”
Hoffman also touched on the development of his role at WWC over time, and what he learned about the community during that time.
I don't think the core of Wilson has changed,” said Hoffman, “I think it's still a group of folks who are really committed to community, who are committed to justice, who are committed to creating spaces where people get to live into the fullness of self. Where we have faculty who really care, and want to engage, and are here because they want to work one-on-one with students. And so we've got staff that can deeply care.”
Hoffman commented on the community value placed on analyzing institutions and demanding necessary change. Though the physical state of the campus may have changed over time, and people have come and gone, Hoffman doesn’t believe that the soul of WWC has strayed from what it has stood for since he started as an adjunct seven years ago.
“I always joke that Wilson is an institution run by individuals who don't trust institutions,” said Hoffman. “So it's sometimes dysfunctional because it needs to be, almost. Like, it's kind of in our DNA.”
While this attitude of the WWC community reflecting a desire for social justice and change can be easily observed, Hoffman also commented that he believes the college must continue to address these matters.
“We've made some strides in diversity, equity, and inclusion work, but there is much that we can still do,” said Hoffman. “There's been some strides and some setbacks.”
Recently, Hoffman observed as the events of the last few years unfolded, and the effect they had on the WWC community. Among circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Hoffman believes that more light has been shone on the need for awareness of these matters among the WWC community.
Circling back to Hoffman’s personal experiences of the WWC community, he spoke on some of the things he feels he will miss most about his role.
“When I came here, I quickly realized that I had to adapt and adjust my teaching to kind of fit Wilson and what students were interested in,” said Hoffman, “and I really love that freedom. So it became like, how can Wilson and how can students here really engage religion in their own way, given that some of our students have some religious trauma? Some folks don't have a lot of experience and are kind of religiously illiterate. I mean that in the best sense of the word, right? People who just don't know or who were not raised around religion.”
While Hoffman has worked with many students who have had negative experiences with religion and spirituality, or no experience at all, he has also worked with many students who believe in religion as a vessel for social change.
“Some students who really deeply care, and see it as an issue of justice, and see it connected to working with religious diversity,” Hoffman said. “So I’ll miss that freedom. I loved getting to think and reimagine, and I love that students pushed and kind of demanded professors engage in a really in-depth way. Not that that wasn't on the forefront of how I wanted to approach things, but I love that students held me accountable to do that.”
“I come from a religious background, so this idea of us being made in the image of the Divine, like all of us, not just part of us,” Hoffman said. “And that the image of the Divine has allowed us to recognize the beauty of diversity and difference, and trust that it's intentional. That feels really powerful.”
Shannon Spencer, the chaplain and director of spiritual life at WWC, addressed Hoffman’s departure in a heartfelt email to the community.
“A teacher, friend, and crew supervisor like Matt is irreplaceable,” Spencer wrote. “His absence from Wilson will be felt deeply and for a long time. Yet the programs Matt developed and the relationships he nurtured is his legacy at Wilson — a place he believes can be a model for true social change and experiential education.”
Finally, in Hoffman’s words, a few reminders for the WWC community he served, learned with, and cared about so deeply for the past seven years.
“What I want to send folks away with is knowing that it is okay to be nerdy,” Hoffman said. “And I mean in the sense that it's okay to be interested in things. It's okay when your personal and your professional life blur lines, it's okay when your identities shape and form how you view and see the world.”
“Find those spaces where you get to bring all of yourself, you get to get excited about the things that really excite you. And know that all of you are important and welcome, all of you matters, every interest, every identity that you have. And live into that, because those things make the richness of community, and the richness of our world.”
Hoffman encouraged members of the WWC community to stay in touch in a response to Spencer’s message. He included his personal email at mdhoffman87@gmail.com, and encouraged members of the community who may find themselves in Washington, DC., the area of his family’s new home, to reach out to reconnect.