I am a professor of urban sociology who is motivated by the potential of equitable, just, asset-based community development. One goal in my writing is to connect our understanding of seemingly huge processes like globalization and gentrification to the street level. I examine how stakeholders resist or exploit transformation, the decisions residents make in navigating it, its influence on neighborhoods, and the various paths leaders chart forward in its midst.

For instance, in the book GENTRIFIER (2017) with Jason Patch and Marc Lamont Hill, I work to develop a more nuanced, productive, and actionable grasp on gentrification that outlines how past decisions inform today’s pains. Brentin Mock of Bloomberg CityLab said the book clarifies “tools and rules of engagement for deploying this thing that —if we can all agree on nothing else— has now become a fully loaded and weaponized word. The function of this breakdown is that…legislators and regulators can be more responsive and accurate….”

My second book, SHOWROOM CITY (2022), is a story of exclusionary growth and unchecked development, of a city flailing to fill the void left by its dwindling factories. It engages the lessons behind High Point, North Carolina’s deindustrialization as well as its stunning reinvention, revealing how power operates locally and how citizens may affirm, exploit, influence, and resist the takeover of their community.