Melanie Pavich 

Macon, St. Simons Island, Athens  

Pavich is an Associate Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Department of Liberal Studies at Mercer University. Her research and writing are focused on race and gender in the American South during the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is a published author, and her research on Anna King and Retreat Plantation on St. Simons Island, Georgia, formed the basis of an art installation produced in collaboration with artists Lisa Tuttle and Lynn Marshall Linnemeier. The installation focused on the lives of the indigenous people, the enslaved, and the enslavers who lived and worked on the land that became Retreat. It was exhibited at Atlanta’s City Hall East Gallery, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, and Clark Atlanta University Art Museum and was the basis of another artist’s book. Pavich also teaches courses centered on a research-based servicelearning project, The Coastal Georgia Research Initiative, which provides the opportunity for Mercer students to work with and serve the St. Simons Island African American Heritage Coalition by conducting oral history interviews and producing digital stories to preserve Gullah-Geechee and African American history on the Georgia coast.