From the fossilized origins of humanity to its imagined destiny in the stars, Jon Wagner's teaching and research career spans not just decades but eons. He could always be "counted upon to ask the really Big Questions," said colleague Nancy Eberhardt, professor of anthropology and chair of the department.

On October 22, faculty, staff, and students came together to celebrate Wagner's 42 years as professor of anthropology at Knox. Wagner retired this past spring. In June, he granted the title Professor Emeritus.

In his teaching and research, Wagner's interests have included gender dynamics and religious aspects of utopian communities, the interface of people and geography, how the Star Trek series used encounters with aliens in outer space to promote very human values of diversity, friendship, and independence, and interdisciplinary analysis. He was also the director of both Green Oaks Term, and the ACM Tanzania program in Human Evolution and Ecology.

Together with Knox Professors Robert Seibert '63 (political science) and Roy Anderson (economics), Wagner co-wrote the textbook Politics and Change in the Middle East, now in its 10th edition. The text looks at the influence of Islam in the Middle East from a political, anthropological, and religious viewpoint. More than 50,000 copies of the undergraduate textbook has been sold since its original release in 1982.

Wagner's interest in human utopias has always been a distinctive point in his curriculum. Eberhardt says that one of Wagner's most popular courses, American Communal Utopias, "entailed extensive field trips ... where, legend has it, at least one student decided to 'go native' and, immediately upon graduation, joined one of the intentional communities they had visited."

Many who never set foot in one of Wagner's classes will recall him as a folk musician, performing with Knox students and colleagues as well as members of the Galesburg community.

With Assistant Professor of Anthropology William Hope, he and several other students started the Prairie Fireflies in 2014, a folk music group whose goal it was to play at local barn dances and share their love of music and dance with others. Eberhardt said his dedication to performing showed "his commitment to-and celebration of-the critical role of folk arts in keeping us connected to our roots."

Pictured above, Wagner visits with current students and alumni during a coffee in his honor at Homecoming 2015.