Elizabeth Michael Melton, Ph.D. 

I am an anti-racist scholar, teacher, and artist who is committed to using performance and theater to initiate difficult conversations about race in America.

 

I currently work remotely for the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life as their Public Engagement Director. I spend my days conducting oral histories for our Religions Texas archive, collaborating with scholars both in and outside academia as part of the Grounded Knowledge Project, and designing two asynchronous certificates on ReligionAndPublicLife.org:  HUM 300: Oral History for Social Change and HUM 400: Community-Based Scholarship. 

​​

I am a passionate educator and highly value my time spent in the classroom with students. In addition to my work with IDCL, I adjunct at Appalachian State University in the Department of Communication.

​

I hold a Ph.D. in Communication from UNC Chapel Hill (2020) and completed my M.A. in Performance Studies at Texas A&M University in 2013. My research focuses on public school desegregation in my East Texas hometown: Longview, TX. Combining oral histories, personal family stories, and the trope of the fool, I use my one-woman show, Unpacking Longview, to reach audiences that would not otherwise encounter academic research. I performed Unpacking Longview for audiences in Texas and North Carolina, and have presented my work at several national conferences. I believe creativity and artistic practice are vital to my success as a scholar and seek opportunities that help me engage a wider audience and spark conversations about what it means to be anti-racist. 

​

Elizabeth's CV