Mel’s research focuses on Black queer feminist pedagogies, teaching as performance, and embodied text at the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. Mel completed her PhD in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland (2012), she holds an MA in the area of Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities (2008), and was an Honors Humanities Doctoral Teaching Fellow (2009) at the same institution. Mel acquired her MS in Women’s Studies with a Public Policy concentration at Towson University (2005), and attended Goucher College as a Rosenberg scholar in Dance, holding a dual bachelors degree in sociology and women’s studies (2002).