Degrees:

Ph.D., University of Cincinnati; M.A., University of Cincinnati; B.A., Xavier University

 

Biography:

Dr. Shannon is an associate professor in the Department of Liberal Arts, where he teaches primarily British literature from Shakespeare to the present.  He earned a Master's and Ph.D. in English from the University of Cincinnati and a B.A. in English and Communication Arts from Xavier University.

A native of Atlanta, Dr. Shannon grew up in Austin, Texas, but has lived in Cincinnati since the mid-1980s. He is currently working to expand his doctoral dissertation into a book to be titled The Deep Old Desk: A Biography of the Diary of Virginia Woolf.  He has presented at dozens of literary conferences, published critical articles and essays in several books and academic journals, and a monograph from Cecil Woolf Publishers in London entitled "How Should One Read a Marriage?: Private Writings, Public Readings, and Leonard and Virginia Woolf," and he currently serves as the Historian/Bibliographer of the International Virginia Woolf Society as well as on the editorial board of Woolf Studies Annual.  His research areas of interest, apart from Virginia Woolf, include Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, D. H. Lawrence, and Christopher Isherwood.   Dr. Shannon is also the Faculty Advisor for the Mount Drama Club, and has produced, acted in and/or directed such shows as Doubt: A Parable, God of Carnage, Crossing Delancey, And Then There Were None, California Suite and Six Degrees of Separation.  

In what little free time he has, Professor Shannon often travels to England, collects books (10,000 and counting), loves to watch and discuss films, enjoys music, and is currently learning piano. He wishes he could garden, but is not that fond of dirt.  He's fond of quoting Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert's adage about creativity:  "Possessing a creative mind is like having a border collie for a pet.  You have to give it a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you will not like the job that it finds."  So, keep that border collie busy by making art.