Meet a Colleague: Eric Deggans Eric Deggans serves as the Knight Professor of Journalism and Media Ethics.

W&L News Office
August 12, 2026

Q. How long have you worked at W&L?
I have been at W&L since July 2025.

Q. What is your favorite course to teach, and why?
They each offer different challenges and thrills. I love teaching journalism ethics, because I get to share the lessons learned from more than 35 years in the business with students who have a passion for doing the work right. I also really enjoyed teaching a course this past winter term on entertainment journalism, because it’s a field which is too often misunderstood and it was my first time teaching this material over a full semester.

Q. If you chose a different path, what other career would you have?
I would likely be a professional musician. When I was in college eons ago, I founded a band which was ultimately signed to Motown Records. I took time off from school to record an album with that band and worked with them until we were dropped by the label. If we had a hit record, I’m sure I would have continued on that path for a while longer. And I still play drums with local bands here in Virginia more than 30 years later.

Q. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Gary, Indiana – hometown of The Jackson Five, including Michael and Janet, and “Star Trek” icon Avery Brooks.

Q. What was your favorite subject in school?
English, of course, and political science.

Q. What three words describe you best?
Friendly, ambitious and opinionated.

Q. Name one person from history you would like to spend a day with and why.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., because he was a principled and brilliant thinker fighting a struggle for freedom few thought he could win, at a time when there was no more dangerous public stand to take. As someone who tries to be an advocate for equality and freedom in my own small way, I would relish the chance to learn from the ultimate civil rights advocate.

Q. Who is the most famous person you have met and where did you meet them?
This is a bit of a toss up. As a longtime entertainment critic and journalist, I’m in a position to meet lots of famous entertainers. Two of the biggest celebrities that I had significant contact with were Prince and Oprah Winfrey. I met Prince among a small group of journalists he called together for a discussion about the importance of musicians owning and controlling rights to their music. It took place at his Paisley Park studios/home about five months before his death. I first met Winfrey back in 2002, when she was touring the country with a live presentation called the Live Your Best Life Tour; I spoke with her in a short interview before her stop in Tampa. We reconnected earlier this year when I interviewed her for two hours via Zoom for a story in Emmy magazine about the 40th anniversary of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Bullies — and anyone who uses their strength to unfairly exalt themselves at the expense of others.

Q. What do you like to do away from work?
Making music — performing with different bands as a drummer/vocalist. But I’ve also been lucky enough to make my personal passions a part of my work. So going to movies, watching TV shows, attending concerts and plunging into other pop culture stuff is both a fun diversion and an element of my part-time work as a critic-at-large for NPR.

Q. What is your least favorite chore at home?
Cleaning anything!

Q. What is the most adventurous thing that you have ever done?
Two things: Heading to Japan for a two-month gig with my band while finishing the last three credits for my bachelor’s degree by correspondence way back in 1990. And leaving full-time journalism work in 2025 for the first time in 35 years to move to Virginia and teach journalism ethics at W&L.

Q. What do you pretend to hate but secretly love?
When my loved ones make fun of me. It’s kind of my love language.

Q. What is your all-time favorite food or food dish?
Sadly, I’m mostly in love with types of food that are so bad for my health, I can’t eat them anymore. Really good fried chicken. Chicago-style pizza from Giordano’s. Vienna hot dogs from Portillo’s.

Q. Where would you choose to build your dream home?
I’m living in something close to my dream home in Staunton right now. But if we’re talking wave-a-magic-wand-money-is-no-object-politics-doesn’t-matter, then I’d probably transplant my current home to the Gulf Coast in Florida and cross my fingers to keep the hurricanes away.

Q. If you could choose one series to binge-watch, what would it be?
That’s easy: I wrote a column for BBC.com about why HBO’s “The Wire” is the best TV series of the 21st Century. I tend to rewatch it every two years or so for its trenchant commentary on how systems in American cities — from law enforcement to education and news media — fell short for most citizens in the early 2000s, particularly because of an ill-fated war on drugs.

Q. What is your all-time favorite movie?
As someone who loves a good outlaw story, “The Godfather” is one of my faves. I was drawn to the themes of family, culture and crime that provided a template for legions of films to follow. “Aliens” is a close second for its ability to combine horror, a war movie, science fiction and a warning about rampant corporatism into that rarest of beasts: a sequel which just might be better than the original.

Q. What song or artist could you play on repeat?
Prince. As a young musician, I found his work provided a template for how to meld R&B, soul, funk and rock in bold and compelling ways. Later, as he matured, I learned to respect an artist who followed his muse wherever it led, refusing to coast on past success and always driven to give 1,000 percent — especially onstage.

Q. Tell us something most people don’t know about you.
When I was in eighth grade, I learned to really love writing after I created the script for a stage adaptation of the first “Star Wars” movie, which we performed for the entire school. I played Darth Vader, of course.

Q. Anything else you’d like to share?
Both my mother and stepfather were teachers for their entire careers, so it feels like a particular honor to continue the family tradition at a school excellent as W&L.