Melcherts is a Surinamese Dutch sociologist, former track and field student-athlete and currently a PhD candidate at Mississippi State University. She teaches Intro to Sociology and Intro to Race and Ethnicity, and is a member of the Race and Racism Research Working Group. Melcherts’ research focuses on social inequalities at the intersections of race, ethnicity and gender, and how they influence people’s sense of self. She seeks to understand identity formation in the larger context of such processes as racism and colorism by centering the lived experiences of Black Surinamese Dutch people.

October 28, 2024

At the Rural Sociological Society Annual Meeting Diego Thompson was awarded the “Best Rural Sociology Paper” for his paper “’Keeping things under the rug: Racial dynamics in the context of large immigration raids in Mississippi,” published in Rural Sociology in 2023. This paper was selected from all articles published in Rural Sociology last year. Rural Sociology is the flagship journal for the Rural Sociological Society.

July 29, 2024

Dr. Nicole Rader’s research featured in Psychology Today in her Op-Ed, “Why Gen X Parents are Afraid of the Wrong Types of Crime.”

September 9, 2024