Melanie Batoff is an historical musicologist, who teaches music history, world music, and coordinates music senior projects. Prior to her appointment at Luther College in 2015, Dr. Batoff taught at Baldwin Wallace University. She received her Ph.D. in Musicology, with a secondary specialization in ethnomusicology, from University of Michigan in 2013.

A specialist in medieval chant and liturgy, her research centers on the Visitatio sepulchri (the Visit of the Sepulcher), a reenactment of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection sung on Easter Sunday in medieval churches and monasteries. Her research intersects with exegesis, medieval religious experience, and the materiality of medieval manuscripts.

She has published in the Cantus Planus Conference Proceedings and has articles forthcoming on the Visitatio sepulchri and liturgical drama in ROMARD (Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society) and in Medieval Latin Liturgy: A Research Guide (Brill). Her reviews appear in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Plainsong and Medieval Music. She has presented her research at the American Musicological Society National and Midwest Conferences, the Cantus Planus Study Group of the International Musicological Society, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, and Iowa Musicology Day.

She has participated in the Diploma Programme in Manuscript Studies at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, ON with funding from the Mellon Foundation. Her research has also been supported by a Heckman Stipend from Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. When Melanie is not teaching or writing, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, gardening, and cooking.