Born in Barcelona, Mercè Saumell completed her doctorate at the University of Barcelona. Her thesis was entitled Teatro contemporáneo de dramaturgia visual en Cataluña 1960-1992: Els Joglars, Comediants y La Fura dels Baus, directed by Ricard Salvat. Since 2001, she has been a head professor at the Institut del Teatre de la Diputación de Barcelona and, between 2009 and 2016, she was the Director of Cultural Services for the same institution, a position which oversees the MAE (Museum of Performing Arts) and the Institute’s publications. Since 2007, she has been one of the teachers of the MUET Official Inter-University Master's Degree in Theatre Studies (UAB, UPF, IT), through which she has directed seven doctoral theses and tutored two post-doctoral studies. She has also collaborated on the Master in Street Theatre Creation (University of Lleida/Fira de Tárrega) and worked at the University of Girona teaching the Master’s Degree in Art and Communications and the Official International Master in Contemporary Arts Practice & Dissemination (MACAPD).  Between 1988 and 1990, she was a professor of theatrical theory and head of the Theatre Classroom at the University of Salamanca. Between 1996-1998, she was responsible for the dramaturgy of The Golden Rule Project, within the European Union’s Socrates Adult Education Programme.

She has written for a variety of national specialist journals (Pausa, Dansart, Estudis Escènics, ADE, Don Galán...) as well as for international publications (Teatrae, Contemporary Theatre Review, VIS, Journal of Literature and Arts Studies...). She is the author of several books including El teatre contemporani (UOC, 2006) and El papel de las mujeres en el teatro (Santillana, 2019). She also co-edited Escenarios compartidos: Cine y teatro en España en el umbral del siglo XXI (Lit-Verlag, 2008), with Verena Berger,. She has contributed chapters in volumes such as La escenificación española contemporánea (Ediciones Tragacanto, 2017); Body, Mind, Artifact: Reimagining Collections (New York Theatre Library Association, 2016); Thëâtre Contemporain d’Occident (Éditions l’Entretemps, 2012); Arte e ciencia: Abismo de rosas (ABRACE, 2012); Kataloniens Rückkehr nach Europa 1976-2006 (Lit-Verlag, 2007); La representació teatral (UOC, 2003); Jacques Lecoq and his influence in Catalonia (Manchester University Press, 2002); and "Performance Groups in Contemporary Spanish Theatre", in Contemporary Spanish Theatre (London Harwood Publishers, 1998). She recently published La Fura dels Baus en cuarentena, in Catalan (Angle, 2019) and Spanish (Planeta, 2019).

She has formed part of two accredited research groups: the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) and the GREGA at the University of Barcelona. In 2012, the CIDDAE-Teatro Solis invited her to research the memory of Margarita Xirgu in America, as part of a collaboration project between Montevideo and Barcelona. In 2013, she participated in an EU funded HERA project on Ibsen, Lorca and Beckett, organised by the Centre for Ibsen Studies (University of Oslo). Furthermore, she co-organised the 2013 World Congress of the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) in Barcelona, which was attended by more than 800 participants. She was also a co-organiser of the Playing Identities, Performing Heritage European Cooperation Project (Creative Europe 2014-2016), led by the University of Siena and with participation from Great Britain, Romania, Spain and Lithuania. Between 2015-2016, she took part in theTeatro Independiente en España (1960-1980) project, a collaboration between the INAEM (National Institute of Stage Arts and Music) Centre for Theatre Documentation, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Centre for Theatre Documentation of Andalusia, the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and the Museo del Teatro de Almagro.