Melissa Bradshaw

Melissa Bradshaw is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Writing Program at Loyola University Chicago’s Department of English (Crown Center for the Humanities). She specializes in feminist, queer, and gender studies, focusing on the cultural memories of powerful public women, particularly American and British modernist poets. Her work critiques how public discourse often undermines women’s achievements, as explored in her book *Amy Lowell, Diva Poet* (2011), which won the MLA Book Prize for Independent Scholars.

Education:

• BA in English, Brigham Young University
• MA in English, Brigham Young University
• PhD in English, Stony Brook University

Research: Bradshaw’s current book project, *Collectible Women*, examines how ephemera and archival materials shape public personas of poets like Edna St. Vincent Millay and Marianne Moore. She directs the Amy Lowell Letters Project, an NEH-Mellon-funded digital archive. Her work on Edith Sitwell explores portraiture and transatlantic cultural exchange.

Teaching: She teaches pedagogical theory, writing studies, celebrity culture, and Chicago literature. As Writing Program Director, she oversees Loyola’s writing courses and placement exams.

Awards:

• MLA Book Prize for Independent Scholars (2011)

Grants & Leadership: Principal Investigator for the NEH-Mellon Fellowship-funded *Amy Lowell Letters Project*. Her scholarship bridges archival studies, modernist poetry, and feminist critique, challenging how cultural memory constructs literary figures.

Labs/Teams: Collaborates on digital humanities initiatives through the Crown Center and oversees Loyola’s Writing Program infrastructure.