Melanie M. Email & Phone Number

Portland, Or, Us

I lead research learning & impact at a mid-size non-profit that brings together grassroots social justice campaigns with BIPOC artists, creatives, and culture bearers to build narrative power and shift popular culture. My prior research on art and critical consciousness in Palestine informs my design of an artist trajectory and tools to measure how our programs move artists towards sustainable and social justice-oriented careers. I also oversee audience response testing and design surveys to assess how art persuades and mobilizes key demographics on immigration, civic engagement, and climate, gender, and racial justiceRecent reports/presentations: "Building Narratives of Joy: Experimenting with Transformational Narratives" with Tara Dorabji and Erin Potts (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OFnftlTVCrg1RXjCLWCaSQbHCvBR-JbG/view?usp=share_link)"The Border Futures Narrative Project" with Haleh Hatami and Moira Pirsch (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eZDmarv4rb2_4vU4gDAihRBxIMOQX-fQ/view?usp=sharing) "Evaluating BIPOC Artist-Led Narrative Change at a Cultural Strategy Organization" at the Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment Conference in Chicago, ILCited in the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project Narrative Change & Impact report.

El Paso, Texas, United States

I established the first prestigious fellowships office at UTEP, a Hispanic-serving public R1 university. In one year, I doubled the number of students applying for external awards such as Fulbright, NSF-GRFP, Goldwater, Truman, Rhodes, Gates-Cambridge, Boren, Schwarzman, and other scholarships. In 2021, two UTEP students were awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants, the first at the university in six years. To build a pipeline of fellowship applicants, I designed four student support programs including a hybrid synchronous and distance-learning online course to prepare freshmen and sophomores to apply for external fellowships, a peer mentoring writing program, and a summer proposal development program for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. I partnered with faculty and administrators across academic and student affairs to deliver oral presentations and workshops for hundreds of students. I also cultivated a culture of professionalism and peer mentorship by hiring, training, and managing full-time staff and student employees as program coordinators and peer writing coaches.

Greater New York City Area

I managed $4 million in grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered four fellowships for minority faculty and doctoral students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including the Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty and the Mellon Mays Graduate Assistance Program. I recruited applicants, managed selection committees, organized finalist interviews, managed grant budgets, oversaw program evaluation, and authored successful grant renewals I also organized a week-long research and professional development conference for faculty fellows, and ran "Graduate School Bootcamps" to coach recent college graduates on their graduate school applications.

Columbus, Ohio Area

I conducted research on foreign aid, international development, human rights, and climate change adaptation. I also taught courses I created on Global Environmental Politics and Environmental Justice.Published work:“Solidarity Donors and Popular Education in the West Bank” in Palestine and the Rule of Power: Resistance, Sovereignty and Local and International Governance (2019, Palgrave MacMillan), https://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9783030059484. “How to unlock a just peace” in Alliance Magazine, vol. 24 no. 2 (June). https://www.alliancemagazine.org/feature/how-to-unlock-a-just-peace/ “The Possibilities and Limitations of ‘Solidarity Aid’ to the Palestinians” in Jadaliyya, a journal of the Arab Studies Institute (see link below).

Northfield, Mn

I created a syllabus for a new upper-division undergraduate course, "Decolonizing International Relations," and taught courses on Middle Eastern Politics and Identity, Global Environmental Politics and Introduction to Comparative Politics.

I was awarded a dissertation completion fellowship for my project titled "Agents of Change? Critical International Relations Theory, Foreign Aid and Political Consciousness in Palestinian Education," and was supported by additional grants from the University of Connecticut's Human Rights Institute and Political Science Department.

West Bank

I conducted 40+ individual and focus group interviews with government officials, development practitioners, educators, and activists and surveyed 240 students about how foreign aid-funded educational programs shape political consciousness and activism in the West Bank.

Storrs, Ct

I served as the Research Manager for The Connecticut Climate Change Project from 2011-2017, and trained Research Assistants to conduct interviews and analyze sustainability policies across Connecticut's 169 towns. I also taught "Global Environmental Politics," an upper-division undergraduate course in spring 2014 and 2015.

Greater Boston Area

I analyzed and reported on Middle Eastern politics to the British Embassy in Washington and the Foreign Office in London, and developed U.S.-based projects furthering British foreign policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Headed the regional British Marshall Scholarship Program, and led a trade delegation of Boston-area businesses to Liverpool, England. Managed the Consulate’s website, digital media, and undergraduate interns.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Political Science

Ba, Political Science