Melinda Cro

Dr. Melinda A. Cro serves as Dean of the College of Arts & Science and Puterbaugh Endowed Chair at Oklahoma State University. A professor of Languages & Literatures (French and Italian), her research explores the dynamic intersections of art, literature, and place, with particular emphasis on early modern textual and visual culture through a comparative, interdisciplinary lens. As a literary scholar and digital humanist, she is particularly interested in the rise of the novel and the development of the pastoral mode, examining the tensions between rural/urban spaces and constructions of the "natural" versus "artificial." Her scholarly contributions include the monograph Integrating the Digital Humanities into the Second Language Classroom (Georgetown UP, 2020) and the Spanish translation of her work Armas y Letras: La conquista de Italia 1405-1625 (Fundación Universitaria Española, 2012). Dr. Cro's comparative approach to French and Italian literature forms an important foundation for her research. She has also worked extensively on second language pedagogy and harnessing the digital humanities ethos as a framework for language class design. She has served as Contributing Editor for Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature and as the French: Seventeenth-Century Section Editor for the critical review, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies (YWMLS, Brill). Drawing from extensive administrative experience—including roles as Associate Dean, Department Head, and Graduate Program Director—she advocates passionately for the liberal arts as essential to developing culturally competent, engaged citizens who contribute meaningfully to society in an increasingly globalized world.