CS + LS PhD alum Natalie Araujo Melo Wins Doctoral Dissertation Award
Melo (PhD ’26, MS ’25) earned the 2026 Network of the Learning Sciences in Canada Doctoral Dissertation Award for Excellence.
Northwestern’s Natalie Araujo Melo (PhD ’26, MS ’25) won the 2026 Network of the Learning Sciences in Canada Doctoral Dissertation Award for Excellence for her work, titled “From Critical Examination to Ontological Decipherment of the Computing Imaginary: Wynterian Analyses of Blackness in Computing Education.”
The Network of the Learning Sciences in Canada includes researchers in the learning sciences who seek to advance relationships and collaborations that enhance scholarship in, on, and for learning. The annual award recognizes excellent scholarly contributions to the field.
Advised by Professor Marcelo Worsley, Melo is an alum of the joint program in Computer Science and Learning Sciences through Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy and the McCormick School of Engineering. She also earned a master’s degree in computer science.