Biography of Dr. Melanie R. Hill

Melanie R. Hill, Ph.D., is Named Term Chair Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Global Racial Justice and Assistant Professor of American Literature with specializations in African American Literature, Black Music Performance, and Womanist Literature/Thought/Theology in the Department of English at Rutgers University, Newark. Hill received her Ph.D. in English Literature with two graduate certificates in Africana Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hill has been a reviewer for the Yale Journal of Music and Religion and published articles on the art of the sermon in African American literature, Black feminism/womanist theology, the literary and musicological histories of Black women preachers, and on the musicological works of blues and jazz vocalists Bessie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald under the James Baldwin Review, Religions Journal, and Oxford University Press, respectively. 

Dr. Hill has held positions as Associate Research Scholar and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and Literature at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School. Her newly released book, Colored Women Sittin’ on High: Womanist Sermonic Practice in Literature and Music (UNC Press), focuses on the ways in which Black women preachers in African American literature, music, and in the space of the pulpit counter social injustices through sermon and song. Colored Women Sittin’ on High has been officially endorsed and praised by both Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, and civil rights legend, Ruby Sales. 

To read Alice Walker’s praise of Dr. Hill’s new book, please visit https://alicewalkersgarden.com/2025/05/colored-women-sittin-on-high/.

In January 2026, Dr. Hill was a keynote speaker and performing violinist for New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s (NJPAC) Art as Activism Masterclass. In October 2025, Dr. Hill was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars for the 40th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. College of Ministers and Laity ceremony in the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA.

Recently, Dr. Hill was invited as the keynote speaker and performing solo violinist in Paris, France for the James Baldwin Centennial Celebration, commemorating 100 years of Baldwin’s legacy. She is also a keynote interviewee in the forthcoming American Girl® documentary. Dr. Hill’s research and pedagogical work have also been featured in Princeton University’s Mellon Research Forum and the Teagle Foundation, respectively. 

In addition to her scholarship, Dr. Hill is a classically-trained Gospel Soul Violinist with 36 years of musical experience, who has performed at the White House on two occasions under the Obama administration, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Apollo Theater, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and for Pope Francis’s Papal Mass. Hill has also been featured on Showtime at the Apollo, Good Day Philadelphia, Philadelphia Style Magazine, NY1, BET, TV One, and has performed for Alice Walker, Senator Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, Ms. Sabrina Fulton, Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Mrs. Susan L. Taylor, and opened for John Legend and Jonathan McReynolds. In honor of precious lives lost during the global pandemic, Dr. Hill performed at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. and opened for the National Council of Churches before the sermon of Bishop Michael B. Curry, the 27th presiding Bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church.

Dr. Hill is grateful for God’s blessings and remains focused as a scholar spreading knowledge along the intersections of literature, music, womanist theology, and sharing inspiration through her Gospel violin.