Dr. Melanie Doherty holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University and is the Rufus K. and Jane Mulkey Green Professor of English at Wesleyan College, where she teaches writing, literature, and digital studies courses. As Director of Writing and the lead coordinator of Wesleyan’s team-taught First Year Experience course, she designs educational frameworks that develop students’ personal, professional, and political agency in the world. Since 2012, Dr. Doherty has used the collaborative dialogue approach at the root of the Interactivity Foundation’s exploratory discussion method to help students develop cognitive empathy and intergroup communication skills.