Scott Melzer

Since joining Albion’s Sociology Department in 2004, Scott Melzer, PhD, has developed a reputation nationally and internationally for his research on men and masculinities, violence, and gun politics.

Melzer has written about men’s violence against women partners, the National Rifle Association and the gun rights movement, fight clubs, and the breadwinner dilemmas of unemployed men and stay-at-home dads. Melzer’s work focuses on how men respond when they think their statuses and identities are threatened. His first book, Gun Crusaders, examines the cultural and political contexts that led to the influence and power of the National Rifle Association, and his second book, Manhood Impossible, examines the consequences of men’s struggles to achieve, maintain, and redefine what it means to be a man.

His current book project also focuses on issues of identity and inequity, examining how brain tumor survivors and their families manage health crises and their aftermath.

Melzer’s insights have attracted significant media attention: CNBC, CNN, The BBC, National Public Radio, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, USA Today, L’Obs, and many more. He’s also appeared in several documentaries on gun politics and masculinity, respectively.

His greatest passion, though, is teaching. He teaches courses on gender, criminology, and social psychology. Melzer co-founded, co-directs, and teaches in Albion College’s affiliate program of the groundbreaking national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, in which Albion students share a unique class with inmates at a Michigan state prison in Jackson.

Teaching has always been a driving force for Melzer, and Albion has provided the ideal atmosphere.

“Ultimately it’s about working closely with young people to help them develop intellectually and in other ways,” he said. “Teaching and learning can be transformative, and they so often are at Albion College.”