About
Dr. Melissa Maceyko is a linguistic anthropologist specializing in discourse analysis and democratic practice. Her areas of research have included social movement building; corruption; political advertising; political action; gender and sexuality; language endangerment; DEI strategy and practice; and social justice issues related to language variation. She applies theoretical work on embodied communication, metalinguistic awareness, and language acquisition to the development of impactful conflict resolution models and diversity and inclusion trainings. She also uses her extensive training in mixed methods research on language, politics, and culture to academic and applied research, including assessments of organizational culture to solve persistent problems and build DEI strategy. She is interested in how anthropological knowledge can be used to solve big problems and build human sociality. She has conducted research in Papua New Guinea and throughout the United States. For more on her DEI work, specifically, see Willing Observers.
Applied Work, Activism, and Engagement
Given her belief in activism and engagement, since becoming a faculty member at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) in 2016, Dr. Maceyko has been active in many public education and activist organizations and projects. This has included organizing Teach-Ins on campus, working with colleagues through the Interdisciplinary Public Square. In collaboration with the Bulgarian School of Orange County, nonprofit organization Stone and Compass, and colleagues in Anthropology at CSULB, she has built a study abroad program and ethnographic field school in Bulgaria. Dr. Maceyko also served as the chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women at CSULB and is currently serves on the California state board for the American Association of University Women as co-chair of Public Policy. She was a founding co-organizer of the Abolition Open School, an educational and activist collaboration between the American Studies Association and abolitionist groups working across the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems. In early 2020, she appeared on Episode 3 of In the Thick: An Anthropological Podcast, where she discusses democratic engagement and student debt. In 2021, Dr. Maceyko co-founded Willing Observers, a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm with fellow anthropologist Dr. Luzilda Arciniega. The firm centers organizational culture and provides a range of DEI services distinctly delivered through an anthropological lens.
