Lion VoicesDecember 17, 2024

Six-Strings and Shakespeare

Written By: Ian Silvester

Dr. Dennis Siler, professor and director of the Myles Friedman Honors Program, has a knack for seeing raw potential - whether in a piece of wood destined to become a guitar or a student poised to achieve greatness.

“It’s synthesis,” he said. “It’s a process, and you don’t really know what the final result will be, but the more experience you have, the more you can guess.” 

Siler, a Waldron native, grew up tagging along as his dad attended classes at then-Westark College. He recalls falling in love with the college atmosphere and knowing that he would continue his education. When his family moved eastward, landing in Conway, he enrolled at the University of Central Arkansas, beginning his first semester as his dad ended his last. 

“We took our biology class together,” Siler said. “We were in one of those giant lecture classes with about 120 students, and we competed like crazy. He and I got the highest grades in the class.” 

Siler joked that after his first semester, he thought he had college all figured out. But after moving out west and enrolling in 21 credit hours, including a graduate-level Egyptian Hieroglyphics course, he realized he’d made a mistake. 

“I didn’t stand a chance,” he said with a laugh. “I loved the Egyptian class, but I was lost, constantly lost.” Though he planned to drop the class, his professor convinced him otherwise, leaving him with the hardest ‘D’ he ever earned—and a lifelong lesson.  

“My professor asked what I knew about Egyptian before the class. I told him, ‘Absolutely nothing.’ So, he asked, ‘What do you know now?’ And I said, ‘Well, next to nothing,’” Siler recalled. “He told me next to nothing is more than nothing. … When you’ve learned some things, you’re not a failure.”

Life lessons aside, the experience left Siler considering his path forward. He left college temporarily, following a passion for music and fascination with instruments to a job in Nashville as a guitar-building apprentice. After his apprenticeship, he owned and operated his own guitar shop, until, at 27, with a family on the way, he made the decision to return to UCA and finish his degree. 

Though he planned to major in industrial technology, at his wife's suggestion, he took an English class with a favorite professor of hers. 

“I turned in a paper one day, and she asked me to come to her office after class. She told me I write well. It was the first time anybody had ever said that to me.”

She asked Siler to consider enrolling in the honors program, and just as he agreed she said, ‘Well, good because you have an interview in 15 minutes!’”

His acceptance into that program changed his trajectory. He graduated from UCA in 1990, earned a master’s degree from Wake Forest University in 1991, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in 2006, specializing in early modern English.

After a semester at Oxford, Siler knew his life would involve sharing his love of Shakespeare with students, so he applied for a handful of positions, including an adjunct role at UAFS. Though he initially turned down the offer, serendipity stepped in. 

“A representative from what was Westark College left me a message and said that no matter how late it was to give her a call,” Siler recounted. “It was nearly 11 o’clock, and I thought, ‘OK, I’ll take her at her word,’ so I called her, and she said they were filling a full-time position and asked if I’d like to come teach a class the next morning at 8 o’clock in the morning.”

His first “class” turned out to be an impromptu interview with faculty members, which led to a job offer. “I instantly felt comfortable here,” he said.

Siler thrived at Westark, watching as it transitioned to UAFS, and teaching Shakespeare and honors classes. But in 2010, the honors program was suddenly dissolved. Determined to restore it, Siler collaborated with colleagues to draft a proposal for a new program. Their vision was approved, and Siler became the inaugural director of the Honors International Studies Program, which in 2018 became the Myles Friedman Honors Program. 

Over the course of his tenure, like the guitars he’s seen take shape from scraps of wood and glue, Siler has witnessed hundreds of students transform into brilliant professionals, colleagues, and friends – often veering off their initial paths to do so.

“Everybody changes careers. I certainly didn’t start off as a college professor,” he explained. “The most important thing is to learn who you really are. … Every piece of wood and every student is different. It’s how we look at them all individually that makes the difference.”

• Tags:
• Academic Affairs
• Faculty Voices
• Myles Friedman Honors Program