{"id":2978,"date":"2020-10-07T21:44:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T21:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=2978"},"modified":"2024-08-14T19:15:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T19:15:56","slug":"english-department-welcomes-new-visiting-assistant-professor-melissa-merte","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/english-department-welcomes-new-visiting-assistant-professor-melissa-merte\/","title":{"rendered":"English Department Welcomes New Visiting Assistant Professor Melissa Merte"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alice Asch ’22<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If it\u2019s been your life\u2019s dream to read a 19th century sensation novel about fraudulent marriages, you\u2019re in luck! Melissa Merte has joined the English Department faculty as a visiting assistant professor this semester, and she is currently guiding her \u201cNovel: Madness and Anger as Transgression\u201d class through the thrills of<\/span> Lady Audley\u2019s Secret<\/span><\/i> by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Merte comes to Macalester from the University of Minnesota, where she spent five years completing her PhD and teaching before defending her dissertation in May. In an email to <\/span>The Words<\/span><\/i>, she said that her areas of research include \u201cVictorian literature that centralizes female plots of economic ambition,\u201d with a focus on storyline and form. She specializes in Women\u2019s Studies and the history and theory of the novel. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Melissa<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These interests shine through in the syllabus for Professor Merte\u2019s \u201cNovel\u201d course this module, which contains works by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf that examine \u201chow society has labeled and judged transgression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her \u201cNineteenth Century British Literature\u201d class next module, students will have the opportunity to explore themes of empire, class, and gender norms, while reading authors such as the Bronte sisters and Oscar Wilde. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Merte said she\u2019s already been delighted by the tight-knit community that she\u2019s observed at Macalester. She\u2019s grateful for the chance to create close relationships with her students, and has been inspired by their determination in the face of challenges posed by remote learning.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She extended her gratitude to the IT department, especially liaison Ben Voigt \u201910, who gave her and other faculty members a lot of tech-related preparation over the summer.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always want my students to have the best possible experience in my courses, but I feel that responsibility even more acutely this semester,\u201d she said, noting the intense \u201cpersonal and societal pressures\u201d Macalester students are dealing with right now.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Merte mentioned that in the age of virtual classes, \u201call your interactions have to be planned and very deliberate […] that intentionality, however, is important and can be deeply gratifying.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students can check out Professor Merte\u2019s article, <\/span>\u201cPlotting an Economic and Romantic Path Forward: Miss Matty\u2019s Tea Shop and the Gendered Cycles of <\/span>Cranford<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/a> which can be found in the Fall 2020 issue of <\/span>Texas Studies in Literature and Language<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Words<\/span><\/i> gives a large thank you and a warm welcome to Professor Merte!<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alice Asch ’22 If it\u2019s been your life\u2019s dream to read a 19th century sensation novel about fraudulent marriages, you\u2019re in luck! Melissa Merte has joined the English Department faculty as a visiting assistant professor this semester, and she is currently guiding her \u201cNovel: Madness and Anger as Transgression\u201d class through the thrills of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2978","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2978"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8059,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2978\/revisions\/8059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}