Melissa Pheterson

melissa.pheterson@rochester.edu

RECENT POSTS

Seven University of Rochester faculty book covers arranged in a collage, featuring works on science, music, bees, immigration, adoption, and race.

From the Magazine

Faculty works: Fall 2026

October 29, 2026

Seven new books from URochester faculty span Beethoven, bees, and the borderlands.

Eastman School of Music student string quartet and percussionist perform for Monroe County Jail residents and staff.

Campus & Community

Measure by measure: Making music inside Monroe County Jail

October 29, 2026

A new partnership explores what happens when incarcerated people are given the chance not just to listen to music but to create it.

Laurel Carney.

Campus & Community

Laurel Carney: Stacking her deck for undergraduate success

October 20, 2026

The biomedical engineering professor builds student confidence through high expectations and personal attention.

Claire Boeck against a white background and text that reads "ever wonder" with a thought bubble containing the sentence "what does it mean to be a good student".

Society & Culture

4 myths about what it means to be a ‘good student’

September 4, 2026

URochester experts challenge common assumptions about academic success—and offer practical ways to become a more successful college student.

Illustration of common college packing list items shows an open suitcase with a shirt, Teddy bear, passport, and umbrella inside of it while nearby is a shower caddy, flip flops, and winter weather gear to illustrate what to bring to the dorm.

Campus & Community

Your unofficial URochester college packing list

August 17, 2026

URochester students and Residential Life staff share the college dorm essentials they wish someone had told them about.

A photo collage illustration of the seven URochester student entrepreneurs who competed in the New York Business Plan Competition.

Campus & Community

Student entrepreneurs learn business by starting one

With professional guidance and proximity to assets, URochester students launch and build companies as part of their campus experience.

John Blackshear against a white background next to blue text that reads "ever wonder" and a thought bubble that reads "how does someone become a criminal?" to explain incarceration and the prison pipeline.

Society & Culture

What crime and prison reveal about incarceration—and about us

URochester researchers on how childhood trauma, parental incarceration, and even discipline in schools shape criminal justice outcomes.

Soccer ball on a pitch with the stadium blurred in the background. The ball looks like the globe to indicate world history as it relates to the World Cup.

Society & Culture

Beyond the pitch: The World Cup as world history

A URochester expert unpacks the history, identity, migration, fandom, and politics that collide on soccer’s biggest stage

: Timothy Peterson stands in MAG's modern and contemporary gallery beside a triangular mobile sculpture, with paintings visible on the walls behind him

From the Magazine

The art of what’s next

At the Memorial Art Gallery, Timothy Peterson is building a collection that reflects today’s complexity while helping shape the canon that endures.

Covers of the six Faculty Works featured in the spring 2026 issue of Rochester Review.

From the Magazine

Faculty works: Spring 2026

Six new books and recordings from URochester faculty span topics from Soviet cinema to Indigenous justice.

Pablo Sierra Silva stands with arms crossed in his Rush Rhees office in front of full bookshelves. (University of Rochester / J. Adam Fenster)

From the Magazine

Office hours with Pablo Sierra Silva

The URochester professor, who teaches World History Through Soccer, on the power of primary sources and sport as a window onto society.

Dan Keating next to text that reads "ever wonder" and a thought bubble with the question "what sets humans apart in the era of AI".

Society & Culture

Work becomes more human in the age of AI

URochester experts explain how AI could support care, creativity, and connection—while leaving empathy, curiosity, and judgment firmly in human hands.