Doctoral candidate selected as Minority Fellow

The American Sociological Association (ASA) has selected Malissa Alinor, a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia, as one of their new Minority Fellows. Alinor also received her master’s degree in sociology from UGA.

The Minority Fellows Program provides a stipend, mentoring and a cohort opportunity to predoctoral minority students. The new Fellows will attend the 2019 Annual Meeting in New York City where they will participate in a full program of profession development and networking activities, as well as financial support to present research at conferences. 

“I am honored to join the legacy of sociologists who have received the ASA Minority Fellowship,” said Alinor. “I am excited for the ways in which being a Fellow will create dividends in my post-graduate career.”

Alinor’s mixed-method dissertation explores the affective components of racial discrimination. This project draws on interview data from persons of color as well as white individuals to map and understand the emotions that accompany experiencing, recounting, witnessing, or even enacting racial discrimination. 

“My dissertation project is focused, broadly, on understanding the emotions that accompany experiencing and witnessing racial discrimination,” said Alinor. “My other research interests include reducing stereotypic perceptions as well as the consequences of sexual harassment policies.”

She is also using experimental methods to examine how these racialized emotions lead to action or inaction. In addition, she is a part of an ongoing research collaboration to understand the effects of sexual misconduct policies, of which she is co-author on a paper published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.