Melchior is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam within the project “The Digitalisation of Illicit Urban Economies.” His research examines how digital technologies transform illicit urban economies, such as app-based drug markets, and what this reveals about shifting risks, vulnerabilities, and governance in cities like Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro.

His doctoral work builds on an interdisciplinary academic foundation. He holds a Research Master’s in Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence (Leiden University), where he focused on migration, inequality, and urban citizenship, including an exchange at Waseda University in Tokyo on Japanese society and gender in urban contexts. He also completed an MA in Conflict Studies and Human Rights (Utrecht University), with a thesis on queer people of color’s resistance and the dynamics of structural and cultural violence in Dutch urban queer life. Earlier, he earned a BA in International Studies (Leiden University), specialising in sub-Saharan Africa, alongside a minor in Global Sustainability Science at Utrecht University.

Across these stages, Melchior has developed a research profile that links questions of urban inequality, citizenship, and digitalisation to broader debates on power, resistance, and everyday urban life.

Research expertise

• Urban Inequality
• Digitalisation
• Illicit (online) economies
• Everyday realities

Current research projects

The Digitalisation of Illicit Urban Economies. This research project examines how digital technologies transform illicit urban economies, such as app-based drug markets, and what this reveals about shifting risks, vulnerabilities, and governance in cities like Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro.