DrAbby Mellick Lopes

Teaching
Abby is highly regarded for her teaching and curriculum leadership and received a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from WSU and was nominated as part of the Design Studies team for the UTS Medal for Excellence in Research and Teaching Integration in 2023. She has developed and taught sustainable design, design research, and industry-partnered studios in product design, visual communication design, and design studies. She has contributed to the architecture and strategic governance of new undergraduate and master’s-level degree programs. She is committed to research-led teaching as a tool to deliver high-quality, cutting-edge learning experiences for students. Many of these include opportunities to engage with industry research partners and to participate in world-class, real-world research projects. She is currently leading the development of social innovation design curriculum in the undergraduate program with the new subject 85202 Designing Social Change and research-led curriculum in 87749 User Experience Design as part of the RACE 2030 CRC Energy Scenarios for Future Living project. 

Supervision

Abby is a passionate postgraduate supervisor and an advocate for practice-based, engaged, and applied research within the higher degree research setting. She has supervised 12 HDRs to completion and has 7 current students. These include a 3-Minute Thesis finalist and winner, a best practice-based PhD winner, and 6 students with competitive scholarships. Students come from a diversity of professional backgrounds, bringing a shared passion for the potential of design to drive social and sustainability transformations. Their projects span sustainable design (product, visual communication, and fashion), visual communication, and social, service, and transition design.

Current and previous student research topics include:

• Community participation and design in planning sustainable transitions
• Transition designing craft-work in Indonesia
• Social design of civic fresh food initiatives and care-through-food economies
• A critical perspective on place branding in CQ city
• The potential of eco-design and bio-fabrics to reshape fashion systems toward circularity and regeneration
• Designing with bio-based materials
• Designing transitions to regenerative economies
• Towards more ethical and sustainable fashion through their everyday dress practices
• The role of visual design in political communication
• A Deleuzian reimagining of art and the ecovillage
• The impact of cross-cultural ceramic narratives on Australian perceptions of ceramic art, craft and design.
• Disrupting everyday laundry practices through media conversations
• The coloniality of design
• Design and culture in Western Sydney
• Pathways to drawing participation in higher education for graphic design students
• A visual-phenomenological investigation of Sydney’s irregular performance spaces