Education

Biography

Research Interests

My research interests encompass the areas of social theory, urban sociology, historical sociology, economic sociology, sociology of culture, political sociology, and the sociology of law and public policy.

Current Research Projects

1. Real Estate and Housing Policy. This research interest focuses on the institutional and political changes that have occurred in the financing of real estate over the last few decades. I examine the multi-decade restructuring of the U.S. housing finance system and the causes and consequences of the subprime mortgage crisis.
2. Urban Culture and the Political Economy of Tourism. This research interest focuses on intersection of race and culture in the development of modern tourism. Specifically, I examine the interlocking nature of conflicts over race, culture, and authenticity in New Orleans and trace historically how tourism practices have displayed and articulated these conflicts. Related projects examine the contradictory meanings and effects of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition held in New Orleans, the last World’s Fair staged in the United States; and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) as agents and networks of cultural production.
3. Postdisaster Rebuilding, Resilience, and Sustainable Development. At present, I am working with Miriam Greenberg on a comparative historical analysis of the political, economic, and cultural effects of the recovery and rebuilding process in New York and New Orleans following the 9/11 disaster and devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Our book is under contract from Oxford University Press.

Publications

"Make It Right? Brad Pitt, Post-Katrina Rebuilding, and the Spectacularization of Disaster" in Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times. Edited by Sarah Banet-Weiser and Roopali Mukherjee. New York University (NYU) Press, February 2012.

"Cascading Crises: The Crisis-Policy Nexus and the Restructuring of the U.S. Housing Finance System." Critical Sociology.38(1): 101-116. January 2012.

"Reconstructing the Big Easy: Racial Heritage Tourism in New Orleans." Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. 3(2): 109-120. July 2011

"Coupled Vulnerability and Resilience: The Dynamics of Cross-Scale Interactions in Post-Katrina New Orleans" (with Richard Campanella). Ecology and Society16 (3): 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04292-160312. 2011.

"Reconsidering the New Normal: Vulnerability and Resilience in Post-Katrina New Orleans" (Kevin Fox Gotham, Richard Campanella, Josh Lewis, Farrah Gafford, Earthea Nance, Mallikharjuna R. Avula). Global Horizons: The Journal of Global Policy and Resilience. 4(2): 2011

"Resisting Urban Spectacle: The 1984 Louisiana Exposition and the Contradictions of Mega Events." Urban Studies. 48(1) 197–214, January 2011.

"Toward a Research Agenda on Transformative Resilience: Challenges and Opportunities for Urban Ecosystems" (with Richard Campanella). Critical Planning. Volume 17, Simmer 2010.

Creating Liquidity Out of Spatial Fixity: The Secondary Circuit of Capital and the Evolving Subprime Mortgage Crisis.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. June 2009. 33:2.

“From 9/11 to 8/29: Post-Disaster Recovery and Rebuilding in New York and New Orleans.” (Co-authored with Miriam Greenberg). Social Forces. 87(2): 1037-62. December 2008.

“From Culture Industry to the Society of the Spectacle: Critical Theory and the Situationist International.” (Co-authored with Dan Krier). No Social Science Without Critical Theory. Edited by Harry Dahms. Current Perspectives in Social Theory. 2008. Vol. 25.