Patrick Eichholz graduated with a BA in English from the University of Dallas in 2006.  He worked five years as a Firefighter/EMT-Paramedic in Corsicana, Texas, before enrolling in the doctorate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  After earning his Ph.D., he joined the VMI faculty in 2018.  His areas of specialization are modernism, aesthetics, and literary theory.  He has directed a wide variety of independent research projects over the years and encourages cadets to contact him with their ideas for senior capstones, honors projects, or independent studies.  As the Institute’s Marshall Scholarship faculty advisor, he also encourages cadets interested in graduate studies to contact him to discuss the possibility of studying in the UK after VMI.