"Dissertating during Covid #2: East German Film Music, with Melissa Elliot"

Melissa Elliot is a PhD candidate in German Studies at Michigan State University. She holds a BA with a double major in Vocal Performance and German in 2008 from Calvin College. In Fall 2020, Melissa will join the faculty in the Modern and Classical Languages department at Wheaton College as Assistant Professor of German and German Studies. In 2011, she received her MA in German Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit. During her Master’s program, she spent one year studying abroad at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany, which she considers one of the best years of her life. Her dissertation focuses on the role of music in DEFA cinema as a means of expression in East Germany. She is also interested in how music functions in film adaptations of novels to comment upon and further interpret the source text. In her free time, Melissa enjoys singing in the Calvin Alumni Choir, cooking, hiking, and traveling anywhere and everywhere.