staff bios

Sean Shannon (e-mail: sean AT maloneysbaloney DOT org)
Sean Shannon is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief, and Webmistress of maloneysbaloney.org.

A product of the union town of Toledo, Ohio and two loving, liberal parents, Sean attended a conservative secular private school for nine years, during which time she first developed her hatred of right-wing politics and her appreciation of progressive ideals. Following that ordeal, a year spent at Antioch College cemented Sean's liberal beliefs and desire to be a politically active person.

After spending a number of years working for her father's company, Sean returned to academia at the University of Toledo, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 2004 (graduating summa cum laude and with Departmental Honours). Sean is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in English at UT; her interests in English include Critical Teaching, gender theory, queer theory, and Marxist theory. Sean hopes to teach both composition and creative writing at the collegiate level after receiving her doctorate.

As a bisexual and male-to-female transsexual, Sean has been involved in the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community for a long time. Sean was President of Spectrum, the University of Toledo's GLBT student group, for nearly eighteen months, and quadrupled active membership in the group during her presidency. She is currently serving as the group's Webmistress, and continues to play an active role in Toledo's GLBT community. Sean is also working to mobilize the BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism) community as a political force to advocate for its own rights.

In addition to her responsibilities as a student, Sean is currently working as a research assistant in the Department of English at the University of Toledo. She also writes the "Politics, Poetics and Polemics" column at the leading blortal site Backwash.com, and maintains a personal Website at seanshannon.org, complete with fiction, poetry, photography and a blog. Sean has also delivered lectures and demonstrations on bondage safety throughout northwest Ohio.

Sean is currently working on a political manuscript entitled Scoundrels: How America-Hating Conservatives Stole Three Elections and Our Nation's Soul, an as-yet-untitled book on BDSM safety, and numerous songwriting, poetry, fiction, and photography projects.

In her spare time, Sean enjoys working on her creative endeavours, studying and practicting Wicca, playing Dance Dance Revolution, yoga, nature walks, and listening to her impossibly large collection of CDs. She lives in Toledo with her parents, older sister, brother-in-law, and three black cats.