Melissa L. San Miguel

Melissa San Miguel is a MA/PhD student researching modern and contemporary American art with a focus on Latinx art. Her research interests include artistic production by women artists; artist networks; reception studies; portraiture; and socially engaged art after the 1960s.

Melissa has worked on exhibitions and history projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee for SFMOMA’s Proyecto Mission Murals. Additionally, Melissa is an oral historian for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. A strong advocate for cultural equity, she has served as a grant panelist for the San Francisco Arts Commission and as a teaching artist at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Melissa graduated with a B.A., as class valedictorian in political science, from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a University of Maryland Flagship Fellowship awardee.

Born and raised in the Mission district of San Francisco, Melissa is the proud daughter of Peruvian, working-class immigrants. Prior to her work in the arts, she served for several years as a legislative advocate for children in foster care and low-income youth. These experiences continue to inform Melissa’s research and scholarship.