Melanie C. Brooks is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. She is a J. William Fulbright Senior Scholar grant recipient to the Philippines and has conducted research in Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, the United States, and Egypt. Her areas of expertise include school leadership, religion, culture, and conflict. At the centre of her work is an exploration of how school leaders are shaped by equity dynamics in their schools and communities. 

Dr Brooks is the author of Education and Muslim Identity During a Time of Tension: Inside an American Islamic School, published by Routledge in 2019. Based on focus groups, interviews, and observations collected over a two year period, the reader learns about a dynamic and growing Muslim community and their educational efforts to develop in their students a unique American Muslim identity. This engaging book offers a much-needed counter narrative to dominant anti-Muslim discourses prevelant in Western societies today. 

Dr Brooks' articles are published in leading education research journals, including Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Educational Administration, Teachers College Record, International Journal of Educational Management, International Journal of Leadership in Education, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, Religion and Education, and Educational Policy. 

School leadership, management, and administration

Islamic school leadership and Islamic schooling

Religion and education

Education and culture

Education and ethno-religious conflict

Qualitative research methodology