Dr. Mel Lewis (she/her/they/them) is thrilled to join the Humanistic Studies faculty at MICA! Originally from Bayou La Batre, on the Alabama Gulf Coast, Dr. Mel has called Baltimore home for almost twenty years and comes to MICA from nearby Goucher College where their roles included Associate Professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (WGS) and Africana Studies (AFR) and Director of the Center for Geographies of Justice. Previously, Dr. Mel was Associate Professor and Director of Ethnic Studies at Saint Mary’s College of California.   Dr. Mel’s recent publications and research include, “Communicating Variations of Blackness: An Intersectional Trans and Intersex Africana Studies Perspective” (Communication Teacher 2018), “Transcending the Acronym, Traversing Gender: A Conversation in the Margins of the Margins” (Women and Language 2019), and their forthcoming book project, Femme Query: Politics, Pleasure, and Queer of Color Pedagogies, engaging queer social justice educators, activists, cultural workers, and artists who articulate the power and possibility of femme liberatory praxis. Dr. Mel serves on the Baltimore Mayor’s LGBTQ Commission as member of the Education Committee and the Baltimore Public Library Enoch Pratt LGBTQ advisory board. Dr. Mel completed their M.A. and Ph.D. in Women’s Studies in the subject area of Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities at the University of Maryland, College Park. They hold an M.S. in Women and Gender Studies with a Public Policy concentration from Towson University and a B.A. in Women’s Studies and Sociology from Goucher College.   This semester they are teaching LIT 368 Queer Literature and Theory and LIT 330 Trans/feminism. Their office hours this semester are Tuesdays 12-1pm and Wednesdays 3-4pm in B427. Dr. Mel can be reached via email: mlewis02@mica.edu.