Melanie van der Elsen

Melanie van der Elsen is a student in two master programs at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands: American studies and arts and visual culture. In the American studies program, she focuses her research on the intersection of politics, culture, and identity with a specific focus on racism in the American context. In the arts and visual culture program, her research focuses on American humor in relation to politics and identity. She has spent several periods of time in the US, most recently at Harvard University doing research on the aesthetics of Richard Pryor’s comedy in relation to cultural politics. In the future, she hopes to combine her research interests into a fascinating PhD project.