Profession and title:
Curator, Drama and Prose, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Library
Interests:
Melissa’s research interests include Black theater and performance and the conceptualization and status of archives in the humanities and information science. She loves teaching and spent several years teaching English at the secondary level, in both private and public schools, and she is happy to talk about those experiences with prospective teachers. She still holds a candle for theater production and ultimate frisbee, though increasingly only as a spectator for either. She lives in New Haven with her partner and their kids.
Brief biography:
Melissa Barton is Curator of Drama and Prose for the Yale Collection of American Literature, which includes the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters, at Beinecke Library. She is an alum of Morse, having received her BA in English from Yale; she earned her PhD, also in English, from the University of Chicago.
At the Beinecke, Melissa has curated exhibits including “Casting Shadows: Integration on the American Stage,” “Richard Wright’s Native Son on Stage and Screen,” “Gather Out of Star-Dust: The Harlem Renaissance and the Beinecke Library,” and, in 2022, “Brava! Women Make American Theater.” Her catalog Gather Out of Star-Dust: A Harlem Renaissance Album was copublished by Beinecke and Yale University Press.
Areas for involvement with Morse students:
Career advising
Email Address: