Melissa Melpignano is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Director of Dance at UTEP. As a scholar-artist, she researches how performance and choreography theorize conflict and livability in contested and border regions.

• Nomination for Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program - UTEP College of Liberal Arts (08/24/2023)
• Mellon Dance Studies Fellow - Mellon Foundation, Northwestern University (01/01/2019-12/31/2019)
• Fellow of the UCLA Collegium of University Teaching Fellows - University of California, Los Angeles (01/01/2016-12/31/2016)
• Selma Jeanne Cohen Award - Society of Dance History Scholars (01/01/2014-12/31/2014)
• Credit Swiss Award for Excellent Writing - Credit Swiss (01/01/2012-12/31/2012)

• Ph D in Culture and Performance, University of California, Los Angeles (2019)
• MA in European and Italian Studies, University of Lugano (2013)
• BA in Performance Studies, University of Venice Ca' Foscari (2010)
• BA in Contemporary Dance, University of Kent/London Contemporary Dance School (2005)

• Choreography and Borders Edward Elgar Publishing (in press), Melissa Melpignano.
• Corpografie del crollo e dell’abbandono: alcune pratiche di mutazione somatopolitica tra danza e letteratura (Corpographies of falling and abandonment: some practices of somatopolitical mutation between dance and literature) Narrativa 45 2023 (2023), Melissa Melpignano.
• A Necropower Carnival: Israeli Soldiers Dancing in the Palestinian Occupied Territories TDR The Drama Review 67 1 (2023), Melissa Melpignano.
• Italy’s Kilowatt Festival: Dancing an ‘Ethic of Living’ arts•meme (2022), Melissa Melpignano.
• Italy’s Santarcangelo Festival Counters Apocalyptic Narratives through Dance arts•meme (2022), Melissa Melpignano.

• Literature review for Somatics and movement for healthcare (2024), Volume UTEP, Crystal Najera, Melissa Melpignano, Amelia M. Rau.
• Improving Patient-Provider Communication through a Theater of Healthcare Equity (2023), Volume Boston, MA, Amelia M. Rau, Sadhana Chheda, Rebecca F. Mayer, Chyanne Reveles, Melissa Melpignano, Kristyn Ingram.
• 5-6-7-8...1000 hats! Aligning creative research, scholarship, pedagogy, and admin duties in neoliberal academia – within “Dance Leaders as ‘Role Models’ in Higher Education” (2023), Volume Denver, CO, Melissa Melpignano.
• Porosities of Groove: The Question of Gaga as a Choreographic Passport (2023), Volume London, UK, Melissa Melpignano.
• Choreocracy: The Bureaucratization of Dancing Bodies in the IDF’s Official and Unofficial Archives (2023), Volume NYU, New York, Melissa Melpignano.

• Middle Eastern Dance Artists and Water Rights