Robin Mello

Education

PhD Interdisciplinary Studies, Storytelling & Human Development, Lesley University
Special Graduate Student Studies, Folklore, Harvard University
MS Educational Psychology, Exceptional Education & Arts-based Learning, University of New York at Albany
BFA Theatre, Acting, Purchase College

Biography

Dr. Robin Mello (she/her) is a Professor of Theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her teaching and research focuses extensively on Innovation and Human-centered teaching practices and communicating science and history through theatre and storytelling.

She began her career at UWM by founding and directing the K – 12 Theatre Education Program at UWM. Her recent creative arts projects include being an embedded artist for Welcome Table! with Black Arts, MKE and Story On! For PlayLab at Exeter University, Exeter, UK. Her recent original theatre works include SPINNING TALES, CINDERELLA 30,000, A COSMIC WEB, and ORPHAN TRAIN (a devised piece about the lived experience of the Orphan Train Movement, 1853-1929).

Currently, she has been collaborating with the directors of the Innoplay Laboratory, Creative Quad, University of Exeter, UK to develop workshops and classroom practices that support wellness and innovation for undergraduate students. Other research projects include Tale of Scale, Sharing Wisconsin the Sky: Indigenous Voices, and Star Stories—Communicating the Universe (STE(A)M projects with collaborator Dr. Jean Creighton, Director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium).

Robin’s dynamic approach also influenced The Penelope Project, where she contributed as actor, dramaturge, and program evaluator. She details this experience in The Penelope Project: An Arts-Based Odyssey (2016).  Mello’s work has been supported by a wide range of grants and commissions including: ArtsEco, CAMPAC, Carnegie Foundation’s Teachers for a New Era, Ezra J. Keats Foundation, Little Red Schoolhouse Project, NASA’s Wisconsin Space Science Consortium, National Storytelling Network, National Women’s Hall of Fame, New England Touring Arts Program, Maine Touring Artists Program, US State Department, UWM Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, University System of Wisconsin, Very Special Arts – Americans for the Arts, Wisconsin Arts, and the Wisconsin Humanities Council.

Recent Work