McKinley E. Melton joins Rhodes College as Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies. He comes to Rhodes after 12 years on the faculty of Gettysburg College, where he most recently served as the Inaugural Paxton Endowed Teaching Chair and Associate Professor of English. He earned his Ph.D. from the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his undergraduate degrees in English and African & African-American Studies from Duke University. Dr. Melton’s research and teaching focus primarily on 20th and 21st Century Africana literatures, with a particular emphasis on contemporary Black poetics. He teaches a range of courses that are designed to engage the intersections of social, political, and cultural movements as part of a critical approach to Africana literature and culture.
