Professor Kevin Ells is an associate professor here at Texas A&M University Texarkana.  He is one of two professors in the mass communications program and will reach his tenth year of being a teacher here as of early 2024. He has had an extensive career teaching not just here but around the world. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Professor Ells earned his Ph.D. in Alexandria, Louisiana, at a branch of the Louisiana State University system, and taught there before coming to Texarkana. He decided to that he was going to stay in the United States after finding his love here. When he completed grad school a second time he had worked at various schools throughout the south and taught in the west Asian country of Azerbaijan. Upon asking why he traveled so much after he graduated school in Canada he said “At that time of the decade [1990’s] it was kinda trendy after university to do a tour Europe, backpack around and hitchhike. I had a sense that lots of people were doing it so I did too.” He still likes to travel but for now he’s enjoying Texarkana.

            While being a full time professor at the university he passionately continues in his research of semiotics and rhetoric. Professor Ells finds that there are terms in his field that are not very well explained even in textbooks so he has been trying to find better ways to explain these terms in a way anyone can understand. He says “…especially in popular books for business, I see something defined and it seems vague in a text book and I can’t explain that in a classroom. I’m explaining a technical term and it’s got to be useful.” He wants solid definitions for words that can be explained to anyone without any real prior knowledge. He has written books on this topic and wants to research it even further.

            When asked what he likes to do when not working or researching nowadays he seemed to find himself fairly boring. He enjoys riding his bike when the weather permits it, spending time with his wife, grandchildren, and elderly dog, and watching Brit Box. When told about his popularity around town he seemed amused. He said “my own sense of myself is that I’m just trying to be competent and giving people what they pay for. I’m always comparing myself to the sharpest scholars I read about… on a good day I think I held myself pretty well today.” Professor Ells seems to have a very humble opinion of himself which makes sense for a man like him.