Mele is an analyst at the Institute of Baltic Studies. She has been working at IBS since 2022, mainly contributing to research projects in the fields of education, integration and the environment. For one year, she served as Head of Communications, after which she returned to her primary professional focus – qualitative analysis.
Mele is an expert in Latin American culture and politics and is also broadly interested in culture, politics, education and communication. She has taught political science, international relations and Latin American cultural history at TalTech, Tallinn University and Saaremaa Upper Secondary School.
She studied journalism at the University of Tartu, furthered her studies in Lisbon and São Paulo, and earned a PhD in Cultural Studies from Tallinn University, where her doctoral dissertation focused on a Brazilian cultural model.
Previously, Mele worked as a journalist for Areen, the culture supplement of Eesti Ekspress. She has also been a columnist for Sirp, an author of a programme series on Vikerraadio, and a freelance journalist in Estonia and Berlin.
In addition to her work at IBS, Mele enjoys travelling and occasionally leads group trips as a tour guide, introducing others to the Portuguese-speaking world. She also loves literature, film, theatre and chess.