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Areas of SpecializationTransatlantic Approaches to Literature of the American Colonial and Early National Period, the Long Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Era, Gender and Race, Cultural Studies, Native American Studies. As a Ball State faculty member Melissa strives to foster and promote ongoing scholarly, professional, and classroom discussions of American identity through historically grounded, transnational and intercultural approaches to American literature and culture. In both her teaching and research she constantly seeks to expand narrow definitions of American identity by extending the framework through which we see “American-ness” take shape. In both her research and teaching she looks beyond national borders and familiar cultural norms using cultural and historical differences to highlight surprising similarities in the formation of American identities and American literatures. Melissa's research explores gender roles and marriage expectations spanning from eighteenth-century Britain and Canada to early nineteenth-century New England and Haiti concentrating on indigenous, biracial, black and white colonial women in this period. Her teaching follows through on this broad spectrum of scholarly interests. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate classes on Early American literature, Gender Studies, Native American Literature, World Literature, colonial and post-colonial Caribbean literature, and eighteenth and nineteenth-century African American literature. Her most recent work focuses on the colonial Caribbean, with its blend of African, East Indian, European, and indigenous cultures, as a transformative space for Western gender roles and expectations. Melissa is an affiliated member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and looks forward to working with the Native American Studies program as well. In her free time Melissa enjoys spending time with her family, including her new baby boy, walking her dog, and shopping at the local farmer’s market. Publications“Bigamy, Race, and Empire in The Woman of Colour: A Tale.” Touring the Atlantic Rim. Eds. Jeffrey Cass and Josh Brewer. Ashgate Publishing Group. (forthcoming). “Sympathetic Transports: Reading as Imaginative and Emotional Travel.” Les Carnets du Cerpac n°5, ed. by Michèle Lurdos and Judith Misrahi-Barak, Service des Publications: Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III. 2007. Conference Presentations“Building Regional Identities: Implications of Dislocation in Sansay’s Secret History.” American Studies Association. Washington, D.C. November 2009. “Creole Cultures: Exploring Women’s Creole Identities in Leonora Sansay’s Secret History.” American Literature Association. Boston. May 2009. “Multiple Attachments: Colonial Relations, Race, and Bigamy in The Woman of Colour: A Tale.” International Conference on Romanticism. Oakland University. October 2008. “Footnoting Feeling: Citing Sources in Felicia Hemans’ Sentimental Verse.” British Women Writers Conference. Indiana University. March 2008. “Collecting Sentiments: The Development of Emotional Anthropology in Frances Brooke’s The History of Emily Montague.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Montreal. 2006. “Sympathetic Transports: Reading as Imaginative and Emotional Travel.” Institute for Common Wealth Research and Study. Université Paul Valéry. Montpellier, France. 2005. “An Ill-sorted Union: The Role of Drag in Tabitha Tenney’s Female Quixotism” Border-Crossings: Gender and Sexuality in the Arts Spring Symposium. Indiana University. 2002. Organizer and Chair. Border-Crossings: Gender and Sexuality in the Arts Spring Symposium. Indiana University. 2002. CoursesGraduate: Early American Literature, Gender Studies Undergraduate: Native American Literature, Reading and Writing about Literature, Early American, Post-Colonialism, World Literature, African American Literature
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