Melissa Pluta Parker is an assistant professor of English at CSU and also the intern coordinator on campus. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the College of Charleston, where she majored in English and minored in both mass media communications and dance, before pursuing a master’s degree there. She then went on to earn her PhD in English from the University of South Carolina, where she focused on late nineteenth and early twentieth century American literature. Her research interests include gender issues, literary realism, sentimental literature, and early modernism. Dr. Parker has two children and a dog named Maisie.