PJHR welcomes three Community Engagement Fellows for 2021-22

Image: (L-R) Prof. Melanie Acosta, College of Education; Prof. Jacqueline Fewkes, Honors College; and Prof. Dilys Schoorman, College of Education. 

PJHR welcomes three Community Engagement Fellows for 2021-2022 who will be doing special community engagement work on behalf of PJHR: Prof. Melanie Acosta from the College of Education, Prof. Jacqueline Fewkes from the Honors College, and Prof. Dilys Schoorman from the College of Education. Please read more about this year's Community Engagement Fellows below, and thank you to Professors Acosta, Fewkes, and Schoorman for their hard work!

Melanie M. Acosta, Ph.D.spends her energy engaged in good works for the learning and lives of Black children, which includes research and teaching for excellence in Black education, especially in elementary reading classrooms; and includes institution-building within, for, and led by Black communities. Currently, Melanie works as an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University in the Department of Curriculum, Culture & Educational Inquiry. Her scholarship can be read in academic journals such as Teaching & Teacher Education, Urban Education, and Equity & Excellence in Education. Her scholarship can also be read in community-based outlets such as Children’s Services Council of Broward County Family Resource Guide, Living Education Magazine, and the CRESTS Center.Prior to her time in higher education, Melanie was an elementary school teacher and a community organizer for a grassroots parent empowerment group, both in Gainesville, FL

Jacqueline H. Fewkes, Ph.D., is Professor of Anthropology at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Jacqueline’s areas of interest include regional histories, digital religion, religious spaces/places, Muslim women’s roles as religious scholars/leaders, and Muslim communities in Asia. Interested in global issues, she has conducted research predominantly in India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. She is the author of the books Trade and Contemporary Society along the Silk Road: An Ethno-history of Ladakh and Locating Maldivian Women’s Mosques in Global Discourses, and editor of several publications, including the recent co-edited volume Muslim Communities and Cultures of the Himalayas.  

Dilys Schoorman, Ph.D. is a Professor at FAU in the Department of Curriculum, Culture & Educational Inquiry. Dr. Schoorman’s community engagement has been central to her role as a scholar and professor. She strongly believes in the university’s responsibility and responsiveness to its community, and is committed to learning with and from local educators and community members, particularly recent immigrants and under-served groups, about their experiences with education. The insights gained from these partnerships facilitate critical self-reflection on individual, cultural, professional and institutional levels. As a teacher educator in multicultural education and a doctoral advisor, she considers South Florida her “classroom” where she works closely with educators in Broward and Palm Beach Counties on research and curriculum that will better serve our richly diverse communities.