Crime and Public Housing: A General Equilibrium Analysis Economics Ph.D. candidate Jesse Bruhn seeks to quantify the impact of ambitious public housing redevelopment projects—specifically the Plan for Transformation project in Chicago—on the distribution of criminal activity within city limits. The Plan for Transformation project was a part of the federal government’s shift in support for […]
Hidden Problems in Secret Corals: Exploring Microplastic Abundance in Local, Temperate Corals Along an Urban Gradient Research Assistant Professor Randi Rotjan, in collaboration with Associate Professor Juanita Urban-Rich from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, Assistant Professor Koty Sharp from Rogers Williams University and Associate Professor Sean Grace from Southern Connecticut State […]
Impact of Air Pollution and Climate on Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes School of Public Health Ph.D. candidate Lindsey Butler will investigate the the impacts of maternal exposure to traffic related air pollution (TRAP) and extreme ambient temperatures on the risk of structural birth defects and stillbirth, particularly those resulting from placental dysfunction. Learn more about this […]
Assistant Professor Shea Cronin will develop and analyze a new data set on city & level crime control outputs, primarily focused on expenditures, discretionary arrest activity levels and racial disparities in discretionary arrest levels, in the context of local economic inequality, racial segregation and constituent policy preferences. View more projects funded through our Early Stage […]
Closing the Opportunity Gap in Early Education and Care by Recruiting and Training High Quality Literacy Teachers Associate Professor Stephanie Curenton will evaluate Jumpstart, an early language and literacy program that trains AmeriCorps members to teach in under-resourced schools, to determine the impact of professional development training of volunteers, specifically regarding culturally responsive, anti-biased language, […]
Dehumanization in the City: How Urban Ghetto Black Male Imagery Activates Dehumanizing Attitudes toward Black People Through his research, Political Science Assistant Professor Spencer Piston seeks to address the problem of urban police violence against black people by focusing on their dehumanization. Through a national survey, Professor Piston will assess whether depictions of black men […]
Economics Ph.D. candidate Andrew Busey aims to test the popular theory in urban economics that variations in population density, both temporally and geographically, occur because of agglomeration economies. As part of his larger dissertation, Busey uses an innovative econometric strategy to provide causal estimates of the impact of population density on labor productivity in the […]
Armored Cities: Violence and Urban Seclusion in Latin America Sociology Assistant Professor Ana Villarreal will examine “armored cities”, a new form of urban seclusion in Latin American cities whereby upper class residents create private cities within cities in response to community violence. She seeks to understand the ways in which increased violence may exacerbate urban […]
Protecting our Urban Water Sources: Developing a Solar Energy-Activated Reduction Catalyst Chemistry Associate Professor Linda Doerrer with Ph.D. candidate Jessica Elinburg seeks to adapt her invention, an NO3– reduction system, for implementation in urban water sources to prevent harmful algal blooms and to make available clean water sources for urban residents in an affordable, environmentally-friendly […]
Earth & Environment Ph.D. candidate Yaxiong Ma, in collaboration with Earth & Environment Professors Sucharita Gopal and Nathan Phillips, will design and build a prototype model using 3D Models and Virtual Reality Techniques for Mapping & Analyzing Above and Underground Urban Infrastructures. The model, called UIMAGE (Underground Infrastructures Mapping Analyzing Geospatial), will enable 3D rendering […]