Director of Overseas Programs
Senior Tutor in Literature and in Philosophy

Dr. Shank has taught literature and philosophy for twenty-five years, both at the College of Saint Thomas More and Tarrant County Junior College. She is Senior Fellow in Literature and Philosophy of the College of Saint Thomas More and Director of the College’s Overseas Programs. Dr. Shank is one of the founders of the College of Saint Thomas More and designed its undergraduate literature curriculum. She served as Academic Dean of the College from 1998 – 2000. Dr. Shank is a frequent participant in Liberty Fund colloquia and directed a colloquium on “Freedom in the Works of Gabriel Marcel, Martin Buber, and Gerard Manley Hopkins” in 1998.

Dr. Shank received her doctorate and master’s degree in philosophy and literature from The International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein, Europe, after receiving a master’s degree in Human Relations and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Oklahoma. She was Manager of Aletheia: An International Journal of Philosophy, II, Irving, TX: The International Academy of Philosophy Press, 1981.

Dr. Shank is the author of “Fathoming ‘Cliffs of Fall Frightful’: Hamlet’s Mappings” in The Tragic Abyss, Dallas: Dallas Institute Publications, 2003; “Perilous and Beautiful: Form and Restraint in John Crowe Ransom’s Vision of Community,” The Political Science Reviewer, XXX, 2001; Country Boy Odyssey, with Roy P. Stewart, inaugural volume of the “Oklahoma Voices” series, Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2000; “Von Hildebrand’s Theory of the Affective Value Response and Our Knowledge of God,” Aletheia: An International Yearbook of Philosophy, V, Bern: Peter Lang, 1992; “A Statement of Principles [Regarding Literature],” The College of Saint Thomas More’s Literary Journal, Fort Worth: The College of Saint Thomas More, 2010; “Art’s Transformation of the Ugly,” The Institute Papers, Fort Worth: The College of Saint Thomas More, 1993; “Rome: The City as Text,” The Institute Papers, 1990;  “Literature as a Mode of Knowledge,” The Institute Papers, 1986; Experience Fulfilled and Redeemed in Knowledge: Defining the Literary Work of Art (working title), book in progress; A Violent Love (working title of a series of essays on tragedy), in progress; and many other articles, convocation addresses, etc., published in The Institute Papers.

On the relation of truth and literature, Dr. Shank writes:

Through contemplation of the great literary works of art, we gain insight into the nature of reality and the meaning of human experience. We open doors onto the vista of truth, the landscape of significance in human action. There is an involvement of heart and will, as well as reason, in all the disciplines; the will must consent to the revelation of truth so that the mind can receive it, and any vision of being in all its splendor evokes a response of love. Yet it may be argued, I think, that the knowledge we obtain through literature possesses a unique wholeness, since literature presents knowledge in an “embodied” form, that is, in the same way we encounter truth in the world. Furthermore, the truth embodied in literature is apprehended through all the faculties of the human person – heart and even senses, as well as reason. The images contemplated in great literary works come to indwell the heart, giving form and meaning to our experience, engraving new contours on our souls. The knowledge gained through literary images is a knowledge which gets inside us and sends down roots, which has the power to transform us.

The experience of encountering true being is unmistakable: we recognize its radiant intelligibility; we are drawn by its luminous beauty. Truth transforms; it is not dry, sterile, and dead; it is alive and it quickens the soul which is receptive to it. This is my conviction and my hope for every year of study at the College of Saint Thomas More: that we will experience the power of truth filling our hearts, minds, and souls and forming us in its own image; that, in the future as in the past, we will be privileged to let the light of truth indwell us, the Word inscribe its meaning in our hearts.