Shannon Cannella
Instructor of Chinese language and literature
St. Olaf College
Northfield, MN 55057 USA
(507) 786-3684
cannella@stolaf.edu
Shannon Cannella received her Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy degrees from Columbia University in the City of New York, where she is currently a Ph.D. candidate (A.B.D.). She began her career in Chinese studies at the University of Minnesota, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors and participated in the University's student exchange program to Nankai University.
As a teacher of Chinese language with eight years of experience, Ms. Cannella has focused on finding innovative ways to make the learning of Chinese more efficient, experiential and fun. She has been involved in recent K-12 Chinese language initiatives in Minnesota, taught at Breck School and, more recently, established a new 6-12 Mandarin program at St. Paul Academy.
Ms. Cannella is currently researching the lyrical fiction of twentieth-century Chinese writers Shen Congwen, Bing Xin and Fei Ming. These writers composed fiction with a heightened aesthetic awareness and deliberately chose narrative forms that blend poetic elements with short story structures. The study also investigates the use of sound imagery, the creation of synchronic poetic space, and the complex way modern lyrical fiction fits into the Chinese poetic tradition.
