Posted By Laken Franchetti on May 6, 2024 | 2 comments

By Laken Franchetti, Editor-in-Chief

After 12 years of teaching at Gettysburg College, Associate Professor of English McKinley Melton will be leaving the College after the conclusion of this semester. Melton will be an Associate Professor and the Chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes College.

Associate Professor of English McKinley Melton (Photo Provided)

Melton was first drawn to Gettysburg College due to his prior experience teaching at a smaller liberal arts institution. Once he arrived at the College, Melton discovered this tight-knit community within the English Department. Melton gave particular thanks to Suzanne Flynn, who was Chairperson of the department when he was hired, Professor of English Christopher Fee, retired Professor of English Elizabeth Duquette and Professor of English Kathryn Rhett.

“I’ve had really good mentorship in the English Department,” Melton said. “For the majority of the time that I was in the department, I was the most junior member. There were ways in which all of the folks ahead of me mentored me in one way or another within the department.”

Fee recognized the impact Melton has had on not only Gettysburg College and the institution’s students, but himself as well.

“I choose my words deliberately, as I feel my life has been enriched spiritually as well as personally and professionally through my relationship with McKinley,” Fee shared. “Being honored to be his colleague and (more importantly!) his friend has made me a better colleague, a much better teacher, and quite frankly, a significantly better man. I will spend the rest of my life trying to live up to McKinley Melton’s standards, and I’m immensely grateful for that… McKinley Melton has brought wisdom, forbearance, love, and joy to every aspect of my life he has touched.”

Concerning his mentorship, Melton also paid thanks to Chairperson of Africana Studies Scott Hancock and Professor of Africana Studies Jennifer Bloomquist.

Melton serves as the College’s inaugural Kermit & Renee Paxton Endowed Teaching Chair, which is given to an associate professor who has become an exceptional classroom teacher and advisor without neglecting their scholarship. When Melton was named to this position in 2021, Associate Professor of Africana Studies Hakim Williams was named to the Wallach Professorship in Peace & Justice Studies. Melton and Williams were the first Black endowed chairs at the College, and Melton is also the first Black man to earn tenure in the English Department.

Melton’s scholarship began by studying questions of religion and spirituality within Black literary tradition, yet this research has evolved to a study of contemporary Black poetry in both published and performance venues. This research has helped craft some of the courses that Melton has taught at Gettysburg College.

A favorite of these courses for Melton is ENG 263: Voice and Visibility: African Americans and the Power of Spoken Word.

“It’s the one I’ve got the most creative energy invested in because it’s a course that I created from scratch,” Melton explained. “For that course, I’ve pulled together a reading packet and my own list of songs, lyrics, poems, and critical scholarly reading. So, the course constantly shifts and shapes because it comes from me.”

As for Melton’s favorite pieces of literature that he covers within his courses, he highlighted James Baldwin’s “My Dungeon Shook” and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

In addition to his position in the English Department, Melton has previously served as the co-faculty advisor for the English Honors Society Sigma Tau Delta, the co-faculty advisor on the Black Student Union and as the advisor of The Fellaship. Melton was the 2018 Faculty Director of the Study Abroad in England Program, served on the Student Life Committee and the Faculty Development Committee and acted as Co-Chair of the Integrated Learning Committee for the Strategic Planning Process.

Off campus, some of the roles Melton has fulfilled include serving on the Executive Committee for the College Language Association and acting as the Advisory Board Chair for the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation’s first academic center dedicated to studying Black poetry. Melton has created a large impact beyond Gettysburg College’s campus, yet it is greatly felt among the College’s students who have had the opportunity to connect with him.

Sophia Kenny ’24 highlighted this impact as she worked with Melton to create her Honors English Thesis, “Growing Up Multiracial: The Impact of a Mixed Race Heritage on American Coming of Age Memoirs.”

“I have been extremely lucky to know Professor Melton during my time at Gettysburg,” Kenny shared. “He has not only been a wonderfully intelligent and thoughtful instructor, but an inspiring mentor and advisor. While Gettysburg is losing an excellent teacher, I’m sure that the students Professor Melton taught will live out his legacy on campus for years to come.”

Chairperson of the English Department Christopher D’Addario shared similar sentiments: “His departure is an immeasurable loss. McKinley is a brilliant scholar and teacher, first of all. But he is someone who carries his intelligence with humor and grace, and thus someone who has connected so strongly with students throughout the years he has been at the College.”

D’Addario shared that on the day McKinley announced his departure from the College, he spent time helping a student who had been struggling in classes. At the end of that day, rather than focusing on his own situation, Melton continued to talk with D’Addario about how he could better help that student.

“It is this kind of selflessness and generosity of spirit that McKinley brought to everything that I saw him do at Gettysburg. His untiring care for his students and his colleagues, his emotional intelligence, has been so amazing to be around,” D’Addario said. “I could easily speak more about the popularity of his classes, his unmatched abilities as a teacher and inspirer of young minds, his brilliance as a scholar of African-American literature. But it is this remarkable empathy and intelligent care that I will miss.”

Melton shared that he is grateful for the past 12 years spent at Gettysburg College and the community that he has found, yet he also recognized the opportunities that the College could take moving forward to improve.

“I consider myself deeply fortunate to have found the community that I have been able to find here. I’ve had great colleagues and amazing students. I am excited about the next chapter, even as there are certainly many members of this community that I will miss greatly,” Melton reflected. “As with most institutions, Gettysburg College has great potential to be a really special place. There are ways that this institution is a really special place, but the uniqueness of Gettysburg has to be curated, fostered and nurtured in very intentional ways.”

Despite his departure from Gettysburg College, Melton will always be welcomed back.

“A shining star has shot off from the firmament of Gettysburg College, and we will follow his trajectory with affection, but our campus has lost a leading light, and I will miss him beyond the capacity of my words to impart,” Fee shared. “Haste ye back, my friend; there is always a seat at our table for you!”