Tsagaris, Ellen M.

PERSONAL:

Born in Athens, Greece; U.S. citizen; daughter of James B. (an engineer) and Clara (a Spanish teacher and administrator) Tsagaris. Ethnicity: "Greek American." Education: Augustana College, B.A.; University of Iowa, M.A. and J.D.; Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ph.D. Hobbies and other interests: Antiques, piano, needlework, Tudor history.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Kaplan University, 1801 E. Kimberly Rd., Ste. 1, Davenport, IA 52807. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Kaplan University, Davenport, IA, professor of English, law, and Spanish, and chair of paralegal studies.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association of America, Barbara Pym Society, Virginia Woolf Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Delta Pi.

WRITINGS:

The Subversion of Romance in the Novels of Barbara Pym, Bowling Green State University Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1998.

Contributor to books, including The Gothic World of Anne Rice, Bowling Green State University Popular Press. Contributor to periodicals, including Virginia Woolf Miscellany, Adventures, Hope and Glory, MLA Newsletter, and various antiques magazines.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ellen M. Tsagaris once told CA: "My writing combines my love of teaching with my curiosity for many different things. I am motivated by a desire to share what I've learned with others, and to express myself. I have always read widely and voraciously; art and history, in particular, have inspired me. I am interested in dolls and photography because through these media we reproduce ourselves; we literally become ‘the other.’

"I also love research, particularly legal research, and consider this aspect of writing to be great detective work. Over the years, I find I've become more analytical and more savvy about using the Internet. Still I love the very act of holding a pen in my hand, and there is nothing more satisfying to me than holding a good book. Along with some of the Romantics, I believe the ‘poet is the unacknowledged legislator of the world,’ and the words of the First Amendment are, to me, among the most sacred ever written."