Marijel (Maggie) Melo

Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science

Pronouns

She/Her/Hers

Phone

(919) 962-8366

Email

melo1@email.unc.edu

Office

Manning Hall - 30

Personal Website

EITM Lab

Expertise

Innovation, critical maker culture, and the development of equitable and inclusive collaborative learning spaces (e.g. makerspaces) in academic libraries.

Education

BA, California Lutheran University
MA (English), California State University of Northridge
PhD (English), University of Arizona

Biography

Dr. Maggie Melo completed her PhD at the University of Arizona, where she was an American Association of University Women Fellow. She co-founded the University of Arizona’s first publicly accessible and interdisciplinary makerspace – the iSpace (now CATalyst Studios) – and strategically facilitated its growth from a 400-square-foot room in the Science-Engineering Library to a 5,000-square-foot facility housed in the University’s Main Library.

She also founded the Women Techmakers Tucson Hackathon, the Southwest’s first women’s-only hackathon. She has given keynote addresses and invited-talks at regional and national conferences, including the Google Developer Group’s North American Summit.

Her research specialization resides at the intersection of critical making and the development of equitable and inclusive STEM-rich learning spaces (e.g. makerspaces) in libraries. Her work has appeared in Libraries and the Academy, Hybrid Pedagogy, and Computers and Composition Online, among others.

She received an NSF CAREER Award in 2020 for a project titled “Equity in the Making: Investigating Spatial Arrangements of Makerspaces and Their Impact on Diverse User Populations,” and now directs the Equity in Making (EITM) Lab at SILS.

Courses

INLS 490-276: Real-time Data Science in the Makerspace: Making Sense of the Everyday
INLS 501-001: Information Resources and Services
INLS 690-276: Information Professionals in the MakerSpace: Critical Theories, Applications and Practices
INLS 737: Information Services in a Diverse Society

Awards

Deborah Barreau Award for Teaching Excellence, UNC School of Information and Library Science (2020)
Top Library Cat Award, University of Arizona Libraries (2019)
Fellow, American Dissertation Fellowship, American Association of the University Women (AAUW)
Fellow, Digital Pedagogy Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Peter W. Likins Inclusive Excellence Award, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, University of Arizona (2017)
Southwest Popular/ American Culture Association, Popular Culture Pedagogy Graduate Student Paper Award: “Teaching Technical Writing through the Design and Running Escape Rooms” (2017)
Professional Writing Teaching Award. University of Arizona Writing Program (2016)

Publications

Melo, Marijel and Jennifer Nichols. Re-making the Library Makerspace: Critical Theories, Reflections, and Practices. Library Juice Press. (2020)

Melo, Marijel and Laura March. “By the Book: A Pedagogy of Authentic Learning Experiences for Emerging MakerspaceInformation Professionals,” forthcoming in the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science in spring 2022

Melo, Marijel, March, Laura, and Kimberly Hirsh. “Examining the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Library Makerspacesand LIS Makerspace Curricula,” ALISE 2021 Juried Papers, July 2021.

Melo, Marijel, Rabkin, Andrew, and Kimberly Hirsh. “Census: State College and University Makerspaces in the United States,” forthcoming in portal: Libraries and the Academy, summer 2021.

Melo, Marijel. “Pedagogical Violence and the Power of Language” (reprint of “Exploring Pedagogical Violence: Students’ Right to their Own Learning Experiences”), in Hybrid Teaching: Pedagogy, People, Politics. Hybrid Pedagogy Inc. February 2021.

Melo, Marijel. “How do Makerspaces Communicate Who Belongs? Examining Gender Inclusion through the Analysis of Journey Maps in a Makerspace,” Journal of Learning Spaces, April 2020.

Melo, Marijel. “Developing LIS Curricula f or Information Professionals in Library Makerspaces.” ALISE 2019 Juried Papers, September 2019.

Melo, Marijel, Elizabeth Bentley, Ken S. McAllister, Jose Cortez. “Pedagogy of Productive Failure: Navigating the Challenges ofIntegrating VR in the Classroom.” Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, February 2019.

Melo, Marijel and Antonnet Johnson. “Teaching Technical Writing through the Designing and Running of Escape Rooms.”Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal for Popular Culture and Pedagogy, June 2018.

Melo, Marijel. “Exploring Pedagogical Violence: Students’ Right to their Own Learning Experiences.” Hybrid Pedagogy, May 2018.

Melo, Marijel. “Knotty Cartographies: Augmenting Everyday Looking Practices of Craft and Race.” Craft Research, March 2018

Melo, Marijel. ‘Viral’ Impressions: Composing Infographics for the Classroom and Work Space.” Writing Commons, 2014. [Best Webtext Award 2015]

Selected Presentations:
Keynote address: “Possibilities and Perils of Inclusion in Makerspaces.” Makerspaces and Innovation for Research Academics (MIRA) conference. University of La Verne. La Verne, CA (July 2019)

Keynote address: “Unboxing the Maker Movement in Higher Ed.” Academic Technology Expo, University of Oklahoma. Norman, OK (January 2019)

Keynote address: “Strategies for Developing Maker-Centric Curriculum for Non-STEM Classrooms.” Northern Arizona University: Cline Library and Faculty Development Symposium. Flagstaff, AZ (November 2016)

“Making it Up as We Go: Accidental Academics & the ‘Follow Your Passion’ Myth.” Invited lecture, Florida InternationalUniversity, School of Journalism (Online lecture). (March 2021)

“Investigating the Spatial Arrangements of Makerspaces and its Impact on Diverse Student Populations.” Coalition of NetworkedInformation. (December 2020)

“Makers Gonna Make: Maker Ed in Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments.” Co-panelists: Stacy Brown, Leslie Preddy, and Heather Moorefield-Lang. ABC-CLIO. (October 29, 2020)

“Remaking the Library Makerspace: New Moves toward Equity and Joy.” Maker Ed Convening. (October 2020)

Media