Margaret Shannon was born and raised in San Pedro, California, where she now resides with her two daughters. Having attended Pomona College in Claremont, California for her Bachelor's in English and the University of Chicago for her M.A. and Ph.D., Dr. Shannon, like many of her students, continues to study and work full-time, juggling writing and reading along with her teaching and family life.
An avid reader since youth, Dr. Shannon continues to read and study works mostly related to her fields of specialization for her Ph.D. qualifying exams: African-American Literature, 19th-century American Literature, Gothic Literature, and Women's Literature. Her Ph.D. dissertation on the circus as a form of discourse brings together a number of these fields, as she explored how and why representations of the circus in literature and film take on a gothic mode that expresses dysfunctions in the patriarchal family. Having worked as a ringmaster in some circus fundraising shows, Dr. Shannon still enjoys studying the subject of circus in both formal and informal ways. During her sabbatical year Dr. Shannon will use the field of working-class studies to explore new ways to tap into students' strengths in her writing courses.
When Dr. Shannon isn't teaching or going to the circus, she mostly enjoys hanging out with her daughters, Alexandra and Grace. Ms. Shannon also enjoys running marathons, writing, reading, and traveling. Having lived and worked in Greece, Dr. Shannon speaks Modern Greek and hopes to return to the Greek Islands with great frequency in the coming years.
|
