• I joined Trinity as the Assistant Director of the Collaborative for Learning and Teaching in 2018. My office bookshelf reveals a seemingly strange combination of interests as scholarship on the horror genre sits next to books on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). For me, though, the connecting thread is the reoccurring role that spoken and unspoken anxieties--whether in a horror film or in the classroom--play in shaping our thoughts and ideas. As a genre scholar, I am interested specifically in how horror (literature, film, and games) expresses larger cultural concerns about place.  My SoTL work focuses on using a model of transparency to embrace, rather than ignore, underlying tensions--such as procrastination--at the heart of learning and teaching.

    In my work with students and in the courses I teach here at Trinity, I see collaboration and conversation as key to developing critical thinking and communication skills. I host the podcast Such a Nightmare, with a current Trinity student, in which we analyze horror texts through a various theoretical frameworks. This year, I will be teaching a course on the home in American horror. As part of the "Creative Expression" component of the Pathway curriculum, this class allows me to combine my love of horror with my interest in creativity studies. As the Assistant Director, I relish opportunities to help faculty—through programming, events, and consultations—realize the best versions of themselves as professors and scholars. My ongoing SoTL project is a podcast entitled Playing the Sandbox: Conversations in Pedagogy, in which I explore the practice of play as a method for developing curiosity and agency in our students.

    For a copy of my full CV, please email me at ktroyer@trinity.edu.

    • PhD in Humanities, University of Louisville
    • MA in English, La Sierra University
    • BA in English: Literature and Writing, La Sierra University

    Selected Essays

    • Troyer, Katherine A. “This is a Sacred Place(lessness): The Horrific Untetherings of Martyrs (2008).” The Spaces and Places of Horror, edited by Francesco Pascuzzi and Sandra Waters. (FORTHCOMING)
    • Wagner, Katherine A. “Placing Horror: An Interdisciplinary Investigation.” Expanding the Scope of Horror, special issue on horror of Interdisciplinary Humanities, edited by Edmund Cueva and William Nowak, vol. 33.3, Fall 2016, pp. 25-35.
    • Wagner, Katherine A. “Haven't We Been Here Before?: The Cabin in the Woods, the Horror Genre, and Placelessness.” “We Are Not Who We Are”: Critical Reflections on The Cabin in the Woods (2012), special issue of Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association, edited by Kristopher Woofter and Jasie Stokes, vol. 10.2/11.1, no.36-37, Fall 2013/Winter 201, n. pag.
    • Wagner, Katherine A., and Megan McDonough. “Claiming the Throne: Agency and Multiplicity in Cinda Williams Chima’s The Seven Realms Series.” The Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture, edited by Elyce Helford, et al.,UP of Mississippi, 2016, pp. 177-192.
    • McDonough, Megan, and Katherine A. Wagner. “Rebellious Natures: The Role of Nature in Young Adult Dystopian Female Protagonists’ Awakenings and Agency.” Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction, edited by Sara K. Day et al., Ashgate, 2014, pp. 157-170.

    Selected Presentations

    • “Helping Our Students to Become Better Procrastinators.” Lilly-Asheville, Asheville, NC, August 5-7, 2019.
    • “Reverse Engineer Your Summer.” The Collaborative, Trinity University, May 29, 2019.
    • "The Bathroom in American Horror." PCA/ACA Conference, Washington, DC, April 20, 2019.
    • “Multimodal Projects Are Our Friends: Teaching Multimodal Genres.” English Department Writing Committee Conversations, Bellarmine University, October 3, 2017.
    • “Digital Assignments: Prepare to be Amaz-ed-ing.” Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, “Digital Media Assignments: Faculty Share Lessons Learned,” University of Louisville, January 27, 2017.

    In terms of my interdisciplinary scholarship, my areas of research and teaching center on the intersections between the humanities, cultural studies, and humanist geography. In particular, I explore film, literature, and other forms of popular culture through the lens of genre studies, with a specific interest in horror, fantasy, and speculative fiction.  In terms of my SoTL work, my focus is on transparency in learning and teaching (TILT in Higher Ed), which allows me to reframe pedagogical experiences through multimodality and play.

    • Film Studies (through the Communication department)
    • Horror Studies (through the Comparative Literature program)
    • Science Fiction (as part of the First-Year Experience)
    • Creativity Studies (through the "Creative Expression" component of the Pathways curriculum)
    • Quality Enhancement Plan: “Starting Strong Implementation Team,” 2018-Present.
    • Supervisor of Collaborative Student Internship, Summer 2019.
      • Project: Course Design with Undergraduate Student Partner
    • Proposal Reviewer, POD Network Conference, April 2019.