After completing doctoral studies at Harvard University, Susan A. Michalczyk continued to teach in Harvard’s Romance Language Department until 1992, when she joined the Arts & Sciences Honors Program at Boston College, as a member of the faculty, and Assistant Director. In courses on campus and abroad (Florence and Parma, Italy) Michalczyk follows an interdisciplinary approach in her teaching and mentoring. Since the closing of the Arts & Sciences Honors Program in 2021, Michalczyk continues sharing her main interests in comparative literature, language, art, and film with her students in courses within the Core Curriculum, the Capstone Program, the Film Studies Program, and the Woods College.

In both her teaching, and in her publications, Michalczyk focuses upon the autobiographical narrative/memory experience as it relates to film and literature. Her most recent publications and documentaries revolve around historical, socio-political, and ethical issues of racism and anti-Semitism. She has been a partner with her husband, John J. Michalczyk, in both teaching and film production for over twenty-five years, in documentaries exploring issues of discrimination, hatred, human rights, and social justice. Co-producer and scriptwriter, her works include Lou Montgomery: A Legacy Restored, Lou Montgomery: His Story is Our Story; Killing Silence: Taking on the Mafia in Sicily; Who Takes Away the Sins: Witnesses to Clergy Abuse; A Matter of Conscience: Confronting Clergy Abuse: Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall, and Nazi Law: Legally Blind. Her most recent book, co-authored with her husband, is Costa-Gavras: Encounters with History.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, scholarly research, documentary film work, and committee responsibilities over the years (including co-chair of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Committee, A&S representative on the Provost Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee for JYA-Italy, AHANA: Mays Mentoring Program ), Michalczyk is faculty advisor for the College Democrats of Boston College and The Gavel (the progressive student voice of Boston College) and has served as President of the Boston College chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) (2010-2017), and the first full-time non-tenured (Professor of the Practice) faculty member to serve as an officer in the AAUP as Vice-President of the American Association of University Professors (2012-2016) and Chair of the AAUP Foundation (2012-2014).