Dr. Jodi Melamed is an associate professor of English and Africana studies in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. She is also the 2020 recipient of the Robert and Mary Gettel Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
Melamed is known for her genuine and unwavering care for her students, as well as advocating for racial and economic justice and the democratization of social and political power. On campus, Melamed works with students, faculty and staff to enact a more robust anti-racism culture at Marquette and in Milwaukee.
Her colleagues in the English Department describe her as a strong role model who is not afraid to speak about topics such as racial and social injustice, which allows her students to learn in an open, honest and respectful environment.
“The university is a unique place where people come together to teach and to learn. It is an illuminating institution where you can analyze with others across lines of social division,” Melamed said. “In thinking together, we have the opportunity maybe to experience a kind of fragile, but exciting collectivity. In itself, the tenuous collectivity in the classroom changes little, but it can build thicker relations of respect and communication across the walls of a society that institutionalizes uneven life chances.”
One nominator wrote, “Dr. Melamed is a central person in the formation of our students on campus. Her work redefines what it means to teach. For her, to teach is to challenge, to transform and perhaps more importantly, to care deeply and authentically.”
Other nominators describe Melamed as the embodiment of Marquette’s Jesuit mission and a commanding representation of cura personalis – the Ignatian principle for caring for the whole person.
Recognizing that Melamed’s teaching instills in her students emotional, interpersonal, and intellectual strength inspires her colleagues in the English Department, and the university as a whole, to teach, lead, and offer support beyond the classroom to make the world a better place.
Teaching Excellence Awards are the highest honor bestowed upon Marquette faculty members. Recipients are nominated by colleagues and students for demonstrating excellence as teacher-scholars.
Melamed shared this short video:
Congratulations to Marquette University’s faculty and staff award recipients for the 2019–20 academic year. Marquette is blessed to have some of the most dedicated and talented faculty and staff members in higher education. And the university holds in high esteem its tradition to honor these remarkable individuals at awards and recognition ceremonies throughout each spring semester.
Aligned with our mission, these recipients display the search for truth, the discovery and sharing of knowledge, the fostering of personal and professional excellence, the promotion of a life of faith, and the development of leadership expressed in service to others.
Please read on, and enjoy profiles of the deserving women and men who were recognized this spring.