Madeline Burdine joined the SSRC in January 2024 as a research associate. Burdine received her bachelor’s degree in communication from Mississippi State University. She earned a master’s degree in integrated marketing communication from the University of Mississippi where she is on track to earn a master’s degree in sociology in May 2024. As a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, Burdine put her passion for the social sciences to work in a number of ways. She served for one year as a graduate assistant for the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies before being selected to serve as a graduate research assistant on a research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Over the course of the project, Burdine was part of interviewing over 100 White southerners to explore how they feel about their place within the racial hierarchy today. Burdine’s thesis explores how heterosexuals who are considered supportive of the LGBTQ+ community navigate and maintain relationships with their LGBTQ+ friends and family within the conservative state of Mississippi. Burdine has also conducted interviews for the Queer Mississippi Oral History Project. She is a current member of the American Sociological Association.