Cover Letter, Resume and Academic CV
Melissa A. Montanari (she/her)
montanm@mcmaster.ca | www.melissamontanari.com | foodstuff newsletter|(416) 319 5572
Thank you for your time and labour in reviewing my application! I’m Melissa: an energetic, organized, and compassionate educator, community builder, and spoon carver living in Hamilton, Ontario. With an academic background in food studies, I am eager to bring my experience as a post-secondary instructor, teaching assistant, public scholar, and instructional support worker to the role of Digital Learning Coordinator for Community Food Centres Canada.
To the team, I bring nearly a decade of experience engaging adults and young adults in a post-secondary setting. During my time as an educator, I have designed and facilitated in-person and online seminars for students at various stages of their educational journeys, and with varying access needs. This culminated in the fall of 2021, when I developed and delivered my own undergraduate course titled, Popular Culture: Food in Media and Pop Culture. Drawing from my PhD research in food studies, I devised an innovative online course that taught students how to think critically about the ways food issues are portrayed in public culture. While the course delved into difficult topics related to ongoing histories of racism, colonialism and classism structuring the food system in Canada, I also centered the joyful, nourishing, and collaborative possibilities that thinking with food brings to scholarship, writing, community organizing, and life. My success in course design and facilitation is documented in official course feedback, where I have been praised for the content and organization of this online course, and for “[creating] a classroom environment that is inclusive, respectable, fun and engaging;” a “space where students want to learn, participate and grow!” As a result of my pedagogical achievements, I have been invited to speak at training seminars and workshops at McMaster on topics such as “Inclusivity in the Classroom,” as well as at national and international conferences, including the 2023 “Association for the Study of Food and Society” conference at Boston University.
In addition to my hands-on experience in online course development, in 2020 I was employed as instructional support for the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. This role was developed in response to the specific challenges of teaching online at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time the university was only just switching to online learning. During this short contract, I quickly familiarized myself with McMaster’s e-learning platforms and collaborated with colleagues to identify and address gaps in e-learning support. Throughout the term, I designed and delivered two asynchronous workshops aimed at supporting both new instructors as well as seasoned faculty in their efforts to engage students in online classrooms. These resources remain vital to the department’s training today and I was asked to reprise the role in 2022 in order to continue this work.
To the position of Digital Learning Coordinator, I also bring a deep commitment to community-building that is rooted in anti-oppression, and born out of my personal experience as a queer woman. Part of my anti-oppression training has been shaped in seminars taught by Rania el Mugammar, Dr. Nadine Attewell, Dr. Eugenia Zuroski, Dr. Ki’en Debicki and other exceptional scholars and teachers, and part has been shaped by my involvement in queer-led community-based initiatives, including Community Fridges HamOnt and Hamilton Craft Studios. As part of my work in-community I also write a public newsletter called foodstuff, which aims to bring topics from my undergraduate course into the public domain.
I am so excited by the possibility of bringing my skills in digital learning – as well as my enthusiasm for food access and food-centered community building – to Community Food Centres Canada. We’d be a perfect fit and I hope to connect soon!
Sincerely,
Melissa Montanari
Professional Resume
Summary
I am an energetic, friendly, and compassionate people-centered educator who has almost a decade of professional experience in education and course design, including online course design. With an emphasis on accessibility and anti-oppression pedagogical frameworks, I have worked as a university instructor and public scholar to cultivate learning environments that enable nourishing conversations and generative transformations in the food space.
Skills + Competencies
Experience with educational technology and instructional design
Excellent writing and communication skills for both academic and public audiences
Knowledgeable about community-based food programs and barriers to food access
Works well independently and with a team
Adaptable
Speedy and eager learner
Content Creation, marketing and social media management
XML (Extensible Markup Language)
Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Canva
Relevant Experience
Founder, Subject Matter Expert + Lead Writer, foodstuff January 2022- Present
Develop, research write, edit, and record monthly essays on the social, political and environmental entanglements food elicits for a public audience of over 100 global subscribers
Promote essays and connect with readers across social media platforms
Develop, test, and photograph recipes focused on accessible ingredients and simple methods for home cooks
Instructor + Instructional Designer, McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies Fall 2021
ENGL 2PC3: Popular Culture- Food in Media and Popular Culture
Independently designed and delivered an innovative and interactive online course to over 100 undergraduate students from across university departments with an 80% completion rate
Developed a wide range of assignments and evaluative criteria from self evaluations, to written reflections, to cultural analyses, to creative multimedia projects in order to accommodate for the needs of a diverse student body
Mentored two graduate student markers on grading student assignments, offering constructive feedback, and navigating difficult learning dynamics
Organized and managed all administrative components of the course through McMaster’s web-based course management systems
Senior Teaching Assistant, McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies. Fall 2020
Confidently monitored and moderated the live chat during weekly lectures, troubleshooted technological issues and responded in real time to course questions
Efficiently liaised between the instructor-of-record and the tutorial leaders on course expectations, marking deadlines, student accessibility accommodations, etc.
Developed a bank of resources for tutorial leaders new to online teaching, including engagement activities, tutorial outlines, and presentation templates
Instructional Support Coordinator, McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies Fall 2022, Fall 2020
Developed, organized and delivered workshops for graduate student teaching assistants aimed at pedagogical development inspired by Asao B. Inoue’s approach in Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies
Met confidentially with teaching assistants to navigate complicated classroom dynamics and support students in meeting learning outcomes
Created and organized an online bank of resources for all teaching assistants in the Department of English and Cultural Studies
Successfully advocated in collaboration with the Graduate Student Caucus for the implementation of a mandatory University-wide anti-racist and anti-oppression TA training
Teaching Assistant, McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies Fall 2016-Current
Confidently facilitated tutorials of approximately 20 students both in-person and online for a range of undergraduate courses, from “Theories of Decolonization and Resistance” to “Reading Environmental Humanities”
Independently designed and delivered focused writing workshops tailored to the needs of students in my section, with an average of 5% grade increase on their subsequent writing assignments
Designed innovative evaluative criteria for small seminar groups in an experimental course, encouraging students to reflect on identity development in relation to their understanding of environmental politics
Regularly collaborate with course instructor and fellow TAs on how to fairly evaluate student work, offer student support, and adapt experimental courses to more appropriately address the needs and learning outcomes of a diverse student body
Education
Ph.D., English & Cultural Studies, McMaster University (2018- present)
M.A., English & Cultural Studies, McMaster University (2016-2017)
Bachelor of Arts., Major: English, Minor: Public Policy, University of Guelph (2012-2016)
Peer Reviewed Publications
Montanari, Melissa. “Mainstream Vegan’s Appropriation Problem: Close Reading Morality in Vegan Narratives.” In D. Szanto, A. Di Battista, and I. Knezevic (Eds.), Food Studies: Matter, Meaning & Movement. Food Studies Press, 2022.
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.
Curriculum Vitae
Melissa A. Montanari
Doctoral Candidate || English and Cultural Studies || McMaster University || Hamilton ON
montanm@mcmaster.ca || she/her
___________________________________________________________________________________
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)