FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Melissa Fickling
between community and work and one’s own personal life. Careers are much more than an individual [entity], as families and communities are impacted, and benefit from it as well.”
Erin Wallin The University Honors Program is pleased to name Melissa Fickling, Ph. D., assistant professor of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, this year’s Rachowicz Honors Faculty fellow. Fickling will be teaching the Work, Meaning and Wellness (HON 310) seminar in fall 2022. EW:
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What are you looking forward to in teaching this seminar, and how might it be different than other classes that you have previously taught? I’m looking forward to digging deeper into the sociological and philosophical aspects of work. This course will be different from my other courses I have previously taught because this seminar is outside of my department. I will be able to work with students from “all different majors, [asking them questions such as] ‘What is work?’, ‘What do they already know [about work]?’ and how it connects to their lives.” What does it mean to you that you were selected as the Rachowicz fellow this year? Encouraging and validating. I did not know how my expertise would be received. “It is humbling. The people who reviewed [my seminar proposal] saw the deep connections
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How does receiving more funding impact you and your teaching? The funding from the Rachowicz Honors Faculty fellow award allows me to prioritize my time appropriately and know what is exactly being valued through my work. It allows me to know where to focus through clear direction and support. The support I am receiving “…clarifies and validates my work and that is not always something that [professors] get.” Is there anything else you would like others to know about this new seminar? The seminar is interdisciplinary focused. Students will be reading material through not only a mental health lens but also the lenses of history, sociology and philosophy. “Students do not need a foundation in any of these areas to be able to engage with the course [content]. Everyone has enough experience by being a worker, student [or volunteer] and will be able to access this course. It is justice- and equityfocused because work touches so much of our lives, paid or unpaid, and has deep, long impacting effects.” There is an infusion of gender, race, disability and class imbedded into the seminar, which allows students to see how each social determinant is relevant to the world of work and wellness.
Melissa Fickling, Ph.D., assistant professor of Counseling and Higher Education.
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