Biography
Melissa D. Birkhofer is an instructor in the Department of English Studies and Director
of the U.S. Latinx Studies program. She has facilitated the Josefina Niggli Latinx
Speaker Series since 2016 bringing many influential speakers to campus to discuss
a variety of issues important to Latinx communities in Western North Carolina. She
teaches in the Latinx Learning Community and has developed multiple classes for the
minor in US Latinx Studies. She edited a special edition of <i>Label Me Latina/o</i>
on the life and work of Judith Ortiz Cofer and co-authored with Paul M. Worley the
article 鈥淟atinas/os in the Attic: (Erasing Latina/o Presence and the) Policing (of)
Racial Borders in Faulkner鈥檚 <i>Light in August</i>鈥� in <i>The Comparatist</i>. Her
article "Toward a Feminist Latina Mode of Literary Analysis in Julia Alvarez鈥檚 <i>How
the Garc铆a Girls Lost Their Accents,</i>" has been accepted for publication in <i>Convergences
(</i>2022) and she has a book project under contract with the University Press of
Kentucky Press in their Appalachian Futures: Black, Queer, and Native Voices series.
She is the contingent faculty representative for SECOLAS (Southeastern Council on
Latin American Studies) and the former President of SEACS (Southeastern Association
of Cultural Studies). She is the 2020 recipient of the Inclusive Excellence Faculty
Award as well as the 2020 recipient of the Paul A. Reid Distinguished Service Award
for Faculty. She is the faculty advisor to the student organization Mujeres con un
prop贸sito and the faculty advisor and academic coach to the first Latina sorority
at WCU, Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority.
Teaching Interests
Latinx Studies<br>Contemporary Latina narrative<br>Indigenous studies<br>Latinx Learning
Community
Research Interests
Latinx studies, cultures, and literatures <br>Multiethnic American literatures <br>Border
Theory <br>Indigenous studies <br>Hemispheric studies
