Faculty Profile
Dr. Mary Ellen Hartje
In May 2007, the Department of English at ASU bestowed upon me “the perpetual and honorable title of DEN MOTHER.” So, now you know my position in the department, as well as in life. I never had any sons and my daughters weren't even girl scouts, but Den Mother just feels like my appropriate title. You know, the kind of person who wants to take care of you even if you don't want to be taken care of—that would be me.
In my five (and a few years plus) decades of life, I have had the privilege of travelling all over the U.S. and overseas; but when it comes to home, I've had only one—San Angelo, Texas. I grew up in a house about a block from ASU; I now live in a house that is about three blocks from ASU. I went to the elementary school across the street from ASU. And, of course, I now spend every day of my working life at ASU. I never have been too hard to find.
After receiving my BA from Baylor University, I returned to San Angelo and began teaching at Lakeview High School while also working on my MA degree at ASU. I began teaching at ASU as soon as I got the MA, but I soon realized that I needed one more diploma in order to continue my university teaching career. So began an eight year odyssey to get that last degree, back at Baylor—oh yes, and produce a family of three beautiful daughters.
So here I am, years later, the three beautiful daughters happily married, and now I have a grandson who rocks my world! I love teaching as much today as I did in those early years when I had about ten times more energy. I look forward to each new semester—the students I will come to know, the students I will learn from, and the students I will watch, as their horizons expand.
I have a long standing love affair with John Keats, and I never get tired of converting students to the tenets of British Romanticism. I also enjoy exploring the world of Magic Realist fiction in writers from all over the world. As long as I have taught at ASU, I have had this random attraction to teaching Sophomore literature. What I like is the challenge of taking a room full of students who are in a class because it is a requirement, not so much because they choose to take the course, and watch them become intrigued with what they are reading. One of the greatest compliments I can ever hear is the one that I get occasionally from these students: “I never liked to read before, but now I do.”
Serving as the editor of a regional journal Concho River Review and chairing the ASU Writers Conference Committee are two responsibilities that keep me busy but that I greatly enjoy. Interacting with a large variety of writers and helping to promote their talents is a rewarding task. I also get a big kick out of my colleagues in the English Department; they are endlessly entertaining and the best group of people I can ever imagine working with day in and day out.
I have always truthfully said that I would never choose any other profession. I get to spend my days in the world of the imagination and ideas—a place of no rules and no boundaries and endless adventure, except when I'm grading papers, doing committee work, and being the Den Mother. OK, so it's not a perfect world—but it suits me fine.
