Mariselle Melendez

Mariselle Meléndez is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, affiliated with the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Her research explores race and gender in colonial Spanish America, particularly the 18th century, alongside coloniality, visual culture, and environmental studies.

• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison (1993)
• M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison (1987)
• B.A., University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (1986, Magna Cum Laude)

She authored Deviant and Useful Citizens: The Cultural Production of the Female Body in Eighteenth-Century Peru (2011) and co-edited Mapping Colonial Spanish America (2002) and a special issue on 'The Enlightenment in Colonial Spanish America' (2015). Her current work includes Fluid Spaces and Transient Bodies, contracted with Vanderbilt University Press.

Her 2024 article on 18th-century Spanish American newspapers aligns with her focus on Enlightenment discourse, cultural mediation, and gender roles. Earlier publications span journals like Colonial Latin American Review and Hispanic Review.

• Medal and Certificate of Recognition from UNESCO and Comisión Ejecutiva Puertorriqueña de la Juventud (2001)
• Conrad Humanities Scholar Award (2011-2016)
• PELP Fellow (2019-2020)

She teaches courses on visual culture, race in colonial texts, food studies, and ecological themes, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Spain’s Ministry of Culture.