Curriculum Vitae
Melissa A. Montanari
Doctoral Candidate || English and Cultural Studies || McMaster University || Hamilton ON
montanm@mcmaster.ca || she/her
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Education
Ph.D., English, McMaster University (2018- present)
M.A., English, McMaster University (2016-2017 )
Bachelor of Arts., Major: English, Minor: Public Policy, University of Guelph (2012-2016)
Research Specializations
Critical Food Studies | Cultural Studies | Media Studies | Canadian Literature | Settler Colonial Studies | Literary Studies | Digital Humanities
Dissertation Topic
My SSHRC funded research project is tentatively titled “Ah, but this was a story about rice”: Reading Rice’s Colonial Entanglements and Contaminated Ecologies. In this work I trace rice representations in literary and cultural production in so-called Canada and beyond. I engage formally interesting literary works about rice, like Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill, Leanne Simpson’s Circles on Circles, and Rita Wong’s “the girl who ate rice almost every day,” to consider the following questions: How does a food like rice figure as a robust and dynamic text? How can taking food—specifically rice—seriously shape close reading practices that more adequately attend to the messy kinds of intimacies, rhythms, relationships, and ecologies that interact with but do not exist solely in conversation with Euro-Canada?
Teaching Experience
McMaster University
Instructor of Record
ENGL 2PC3: Popular Culture- Food in Media and Popular Culture (Fall 2021)
Senior Teaching Assistant
ENGL 1H03: Words in Place with Dr. Daniel Coleman (Winter 2021)
Online Instructional Support
Department of English and Cultural Studies (Fall 2022, Fall 2020)
Teaching Assistant
ENGL 2Z03: Reading Environmental Humanities (Winter 2024, Current)
ENGL 3V03: Global Anglophone Literatures & Film with Shamika Shabnam (Winter 2020)
ENGL 3GG3: Theories of Decolonization and Resistance with Dr. Nadine Attewell (Fall 2019 & Fall 2018)
ENGL 3V03: Global Anglophone Literatures & Film with Dr. Nadine Attewell (Winter 2019)
Other Roles
McMaster University
Publicity and Social Media for the Department of English and Cultural Studies (Winter 2022)
Peer Reviewed Publications
Public Writing
Brown, Marika & Melissa Montanari. “Horror comedy The Menu delves into foodie snobbery when you’re dying for a cheeseburger.” The Conversation. 26 January 2023.
Brown, Marika & Melissa Montanari. “On the Possibilities of Queer Vegan Pleasure,” NiCHE, Spring 2022.
Montanari, Melissa. foodstuff, January 2022-present.
Editing and Coding
Student XML editor for the Text Encoding Initiative: Map of Early Modern London, under the editorship of Dr. Mark Kaethler, 2016
Student XML editor for the textbase: Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present, 2015
Conference Activity
“Bad Feeling and Queer Temporalities as Refusal in Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill,” Knowing Food (ASFS & AFHVS 2023 Conference). Boston University, June 2023.
*Canceled due to COVID-19* With Theresa Kenney, Katrina Sellinger, Aisha Wilks and Dr. Ki’en Debicki, "Considering and Co-Creating Constellations: Solidarity, Desire, Resistance.” The Poetics, Politics, and Praxis of Transnational Feminisms: NWSA Annual Conference, 2020.
“Unsettling Veganism: When Health Promotion Takes a Plant Based Turn.” Canadian Association for Food Studies at Circles of Conversation: Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. University of British Columbia, June 2019.
“Neocolonialism and the Biopolitics of Agricultural Life in Rita Wong’s ‘Canola Queasy.’” Canadian Association for Food Studies at Gathering Diversity: Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. University of Regina, May 2018.
“Ah, but this was a story about rice”: Biopolitics of Non-human Agriculture in Rita Wong’s “the girl who ate rice almost every day” Seventh International Conference on Food Studies. Gustolab International Institute for Food Studies and Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy, October 2017.
Guest Lectures
“Words, Ecology, and Wild Rice.” English 1H03 Words in Place, McMaster University, Virtual, March 31, 2021.
Panels, Workshops, and Seminar Presentations
Panelist, “Strikes and Solidarities: A Roundtable on Strikes, Struggles, and Futures,” Roundtable with Theresa N. Kenney, Zahra Tootonsab, and Marika Brown, Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes (WGSRF), York University, June 2023. Proposal accepted.
Invited Speaker, “Applying for Grants and Scholarships.” Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, September 2022.
Presenter, “Essay Writing for English and Cultural Studies.” English 1H03: Words in Place, McMaster University, Virtual, March 2021.
Co-organizer & Presenter, “Teaching Close Reading.” Instructional Support Workshop for English and Cultural Studies TAs, McMaster University, Virtual, November 2020.
Co-organizer & Presenter, “Giving Helpful Feedback to Students.” Instructional Support Workshop for English and Cultural Studies TAs, McMaster University, Virtual, October, 2020.
Co-organizer & Presenter, “Training-to-Term: Preparing your Teaching Documents and Scheduling Office Hours for an Online Semester.” Department of English and Cultural Studies’ TA Orientation, McMaster University, Virtual, September 2020.
Invited Speaker, “Inclusivity in the Seminar Room.” Department of English and Cultural Studies’ Graduate Orientation, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, September 2019.
Professional Trainings
“Professor Hippo-On-Campus Graduate Student Mental Health Education Program,” McMaster Okanagan Office of Health & Well-being, McMaster University, February 2024.
“Decolonization, anti-oppression and anti-racism in the classroom,” McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies TA Training, August 2022.
“Leading Tutorials Successfully,” McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies TA Training, August 2022.
Digital Humanities Summer Institute, June 2022
“Anti-Oppression Teaching Assistant Training” with Rania el Mugammar, McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies, January 2022.
“Communication Practices in the Classroom,” McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies TA Training, August 2019.
“Teaching Writing,” McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies TA Training, August 2019.
Service Work
McMaster University- Department of English and Cultural Studies
CUPE Union Steward Unit 1 (2019-2022)
Social Committee, ECS Graduate student Caucus (2019-2021)
TA Liaison Committee, ECS Graduate Student Caucus (2019-2020)
University of Guelph
Peer Support, Center for International Programs (2015-2016)
Scholarships and Awards
English and Cultural Studies Conference Travel Award (2023)
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2022)
Ontario Graduate Fellowship (2021-2022)
CUPE 3906 Jayoti Edington Steward Award (2019-2020)
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2019-2020)