Robert Melson (born 1937) is professor emeritus of political science and a member of the Jewish studies program at Purdue University.
In 2006 and 2007, he was the Cathy Cohen-Lasry Distinguished Professor in the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Melson survived the Holocaust in Poland, escaping a pogrom with his parents and later living under false papers.
His interest in the topic derives from his family's experience in Europe, as well as from his field work in Nigeria in 1964–65, just before the onset of the Nigerian Civil War.
The story of his family's shared survival during the Holocaust is told in False Papers (University of Illinois Press, 2000), which was a finalist for the 2001 National Jewish Book Award.