Not That Neighborhood!: Racialized Perspectives on the Value of Gentrification
The Department of Sociology is excited to host Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana on March 5 for our 2023-24 Distinguished Speaker Series.
Dr. Rucks-Ahidiana, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Albany, will present a lecture titled “Not That Neighborhood!: Racialized Perspectives on the Value of Gentrification.”
This lecture will be online over Zoom.
ABSTRACT
Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana
Both in and out of the academy, the debate about gentrification is whether it is a “good” or “bad” change. In this chapter of my book, I write about the news media’s take on this question and analyze how assessments of gentrification vary by race.
In my analysis of almost 1,000 articles about gentrification in Baltimore, Maryland and San Francisco, California published between 1990 and 2014, I find that assessments of gentrification reflect the underlying value of the racialized space in which it occurs. Articles describe gentrification in Asian and Black neighborhoods as less detrimental to residents and the neighborhoods than gentrification in Latinx and White neighborhoods. These assessments reflect the devaluation of Asian and Black spaces and people in the two cities and the value of White neighborhoods and residents.
As I argue, these racialized assessments are the logical conclusion of the ways in which the news presents gentrification as race-neutral, without a history, and unfolding similarly regardless of the neighborhood.
A native of Baltimore City, Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana was always drawn to urban issues. She spent most of her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland at College Park in LeFrak Hall between the geography and African American Studies departments where she learned about race and space.
After completing a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy and a minor in African American Studies, she pursued a career in evaluation research, her first research experience. She learned the ropes of qualitative research at MDRC in the Low-Wage Workers and Communities policy area where she worked on workforce development and community initiative evaluations. She then applied her new skill set as a qualitative researcher at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College where she worked on evaluations of student success courses and online courses.
Rucks-Ahidiana completed a Master’s in Public Administration from New York University (2012) where she focused on housing and urban policy and a Ph.D. in Sociology at UC Berkeley (2018).
After completing a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at New York University, she began as an Assistant Professor at University at Albany, State University of New York in the Sociology Department where she teaches courses on race/ethnicity and urban sociology and promotes transparency on all things PhD at Practical PhD.
Find out more about Dr. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana here.
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