Tanya Melendez

Tanya Melendez (she/her/hers) is an Interview Trainer at ALJP Consulting. Tanya has taught written and oral communication, gender communication, and argumentation in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where she is a Ph.D. student. Her research interests include rhetoric, rhetorical criticism, public address, television, gender, and race.

As a rhetorical critic, Tanya's research investigates the ways television constructs collective meanings about modern cultural issues surrounding race and gender. Her work is based in the tradition of scholars like rhetorical scholar Bonnie Dow who argued “television works rhetorically to negotiate social issues: to define them, to represent them, and ultimately, to offer vision of their meanings and implications.”

Tanya has been a Illinois Distinguished Fellow. She has coached multiple college students to state and national forensics championships at Bradley University, Seton Hall University and numerous high school speech camps. Her publications include books chapters in In Researchers Toolbox: Foundational Methods in Communication, Vox, and Entertainment Weekly. Tanya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Organization Communication from Bradley University, and a Master of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.