FOCUS
Melody’s research focuses on evoking change by creating space for understanding the immigrant experience of navigating early intervention and related services in special education, particularly among Punjabi communities. Special education and related services are founded in White American frameworks that isolate the child from their ancestral backgrounds. Cultural and racial considerations are not emphasized in these structural processes, leading to the growing deficit of students who are misdiagnosed, misplaced, mistreated, and uninformed. Families, particularly immigrants, are not given adequate translators, debriefing, or advocacy needed to navigate these spaces. Melody’s current synthesis has shown that Punjabis are not included in the South Asian immigrant research within early intervention and disability studies. Her work will create a space for Punjabi immigrant families in the U.S. navigating these processes and further contribute to equitable opportunities of accessibility.
MORE ABOUT MELODY
A first-generation Punjabi American scholar and former classroom teacher, Melody utilizes community-centered healing, intersectionality, and the social model to sustain diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice within historically marginalized populations navigating the early phases of disabilities and services, particularly within Punjabi families.
