Derek Hyra

Slow and Sudden Violence: Why and When Uprisings Occur

In this talk, Derek Hyra will link police violence to an ongoing cycle of racial and spatial urban redevelopment repression. By delving into the real estate histories of St. Louis and Baltimore, he will show how housing and community development policies advance neighborhood inequality by segregating, gentrifying, and displacing Black communities.

Repeated decisions to “upgrade” the urban fabric and uproot low-income Black populations have resulted in pockets of poverty inhabited by people experiencing displacement trauma and police surveillance. These interconnected sets of divestments and accumulated frustrations have contributed to eruptions of violence in response to tragic, unjust police killings. To confront American unrest, Hyra urges that we end racialized policing, stop Black community destruction and displacement, and reduce neighborhood inequality.

Derek Hyra is a professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy within the School of Public Affairs at American University. His research focuses on processes of neighborhood change, with an emphasis on housing, urban politics, and race. Dr. Hyra is the co-editor of Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC (Routledge 2016) and author of The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville (University of Chicago Press 2008) and Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City (University of Chicago Press 2017). Dr. Hyra’s research has been showcased in both academic journals, such as City & Community, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Affairs Review, and Urban Studies. Dr. Hyra strongly believes in professional and public service. He has served in several positions including board chair of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, member of the Alexandria (Virginia) Planning Commission, Obama appointee on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities, and chair of the American Sociological Association’s Community and Urban Sociology Section. He currently serves as the President of the Eastern Sociological Society, member of the City of Falls Church (Virginia) Planning Commission, Editorial Advisory Board Member of Housing Policy Debate, and External Advisory Board Member of Boston University’s Initiative on Cities. He also co-edits a new urban book series with PENN Press. Dr. Hyra received his B.A. from Colgate University and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to Columbia University affiliates with a valid university ID. Any questions on the events can be directed Diana Guo, dg3372@columbia.edu; Vinita Govindarajan, vg2588@columbia.edu; Mauricio Enrique Rada Orellana, mer2245@columbia.edu

The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) is co-organized by the MSUP Program and second-year PhD students in Urban Planning: Vinita Govindarajan, Diana Guo, and Mauricio Rada Orellana.