Melissa McLeod

Melissa McLeod explores the intersections of haunting and subjectivity in Victorian fiction in her research and teaching. She is particularly interested in how writers use ghostly and gothic elements in nineteenth-century realist fiction. Dr. McLeod’s work examines history and culture in Victorian Britain, showing how these forces impacted writers and how these writers impacted their culture.

Dr. McLeod’s interest in the historical and cultural aspects of Victorian literature inspired her to develop a study abroad program on economic inequality in nineteenth-century London, Victorian London’s Underworld. She led this program in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Dr. McLeod also developed and led study abroad programs on British Women Writers (19 c.-contemporary) and Paris and Revolutionary Fever: British Writers Reactions to the French Revolution. The former program went to London and the latter to Paris.

For 2020-2021, Dr. McLeod won a Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning CETL Faculty Teaching Fellowship to support her Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project, Place-based Pedagogy in a Virtual World, a project that explores digital ways to use place-based pedagogy at a time of limited travel opportunities.

In addition, Dr. McLeod works with the university College to Career (CTC) initiative. She was awarded a CTC Faculty Fellowship in 2019 to develop modules that guided students toward articulating how the skills they developed from study abroad programs and other Signature Experiences translate to career competencies they will use in the workplace. In 2020, she won another CTC Faculty Fellowship to help the College of Arts and Sciences implement the CTC initiative in their departments.

Dr. McLeod’s dedication to teaching was recognized by CETL in 2017, when she won CETL’s Teaching Effectiveness Award, 2017-2018.