About
Melissa (she/they) is a Rackham Merit Fellow. Melissa received their MA in Media Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was the recipient of the Advanced Opportunity Program (AOP) Fellowship.
Melissa’s MA thesis focused on Black beauty vloggers on YouTube, analyzing the intersections of race and digital feminized and aspirational labor. Melissa’s research interests are: intersectional feminist media studies, queer theory, representations of race and gender in the media, temporality and media, and identity in digital spaces.
While at UWM, Melissa also served as the Assistant Director of the Women’s Resource Center, using an intersectional feminist praxis to coordinate programming, develop student staff, and provide services and support to the campus and Milwaukee community. As a first-gen student and an AmeriCorps alum, Melissa is also passionate about college access and has worked with college access programs from Detroit to Milwaukee.
