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 and address conflict, health disparities, and environmental challenges in contested and border regions.

• Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics - American Society for Aesthetics (10/25/2024)
• UTEP Research & Innovation Rising Researcher Award – Social Science, Arts, Culture & Society - The University of Texas at El Paso (04/24/2024)
• 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)

• Throwing like a Palestinian Girl: Sumud beyond Sentiment Journal of Intercultural Studies (2026), Melissa Melpignano.
• Choreographing Place-Based Programming in Times of Institutional Change: Accepted for Sensemaking, Scaffolding, And Dancing-With at The University of Texas at El Paso. Journal of Dance Education (in press), Melissa Melpignano, Rosemary Candelario, Cristina Goletti.
• Choreography and Borders Elgar (2024), Melissa Melpignano.
• Mapping the Rio Scholarworks @ UTEP (2024), Melissa Melpignano, Aliah Candia.
• Zarhy’s Affect: Beyond the Binary of Ausencia and Presencia Dance Context Webzine (2024), Melissa Melpignano.

• “‘I don’t like things which you would call in Hebrew balagan’: Dance, Desire, Diplomacy, and Diasporic Dreams in the Baroness de Rothschild’s Politics of Patronage” (2024), Volume virtual, Melissa Melpignano.
• Literature review for Somatics and movement for healthcare (2024), Volume UTEP, Crystal Najera, Melissa Melpignano, Amelia M. Rau.
• Undoing Colonial Ambiguity - keyword: conflict (2024), Volume Buenos Aires, Melissa Melpignano.
• Italian State-Formation and Colonial Acceleration: MENA Archives, Italian Dance Librettos, and the Emergence of Fascism (and anti-Fascism) (2024), Volume Buenos Aires, Argentina, Melissa Melpignano.
• Somatics in Higher Education Settings to Expand Access to Healthcare (2024), Volume Gibney Center, New York, Melissa Melpignano, Crystal Najera, Ray Schwartz.

• Somatics and Movement for Healthcare (02/01/2024 - 01/31/2026) National Endowment of Arts
• Middle Eastern Dance Artists and Water Rights (01/01/2023 - 05/31/2023) UTEP Department of History