Her research focuses on issues of race, gender, and sexuality in colonial Spanish America with special interest in the eighteenth century. Dr. Melendez is the author of Raza, género e hibridez en El lazarillo de ciegos camiantes (1999), and her articles have appeared in Revista de estudios hispánicos, Latin American Literary Review, Revista iberoamericana, Revista de crítica literaria latinoamericana, and Dieciocho/Hispanic Enlightenment.