James Fraser · Urban & Environmental Scholar · Virginia State University

Who gets to claim the city, and on what terms?

Research, writing, and public scholarship on cities, housing, environment, and the politics of belonging.

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New · 2026 Award

Awarded a University Faculty Fellowship for Trojan Pathways

An AI-Integrated Faculty Toolkit for Individualized Student Learning at Virginia State University — awarded by Provost Dr. Tia Minnis and funded by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

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01

The work

Four through-lines of the research. Select a theme to bring it to the screen and play a short overview — then open it to read and download the work itself.
01
Urban
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01
The Engineering of Exclusion
Gentrification, the Over-the-Rhine People's Movement, and the right to claim the city.
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Key works — Urban
2019After Gentrification: Social Mix, Settler Colonialism, and Cruel Optimism. AntipodeDownload
2004Beyond Gentrification: Mobilizing Communities and Claiming Space. Urban GeographyDownload
2003Building Community Citizens: Claiming the Right to Place-Making. Urban StudiesDownload
2016Disrupting the Order of Things: Public Housing Tenant Organizing. CitiesDownload
02
Why Homeowners Are Trapped in Floodplains
FEMA buyouts, repetitive-loss properties, and community-based flood policy.
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Key works — Environment
2017Historical Waterscape Trajectories That Need Care: Kinston's Flood Homes. Journal of Political EcologyDownload
2011Repetitive Flood Victims and Acceptance of FEMA Mitigation Offers. DisastersDownload
2006Creating Effective Flood Mitigation Policies. Eos, AGUDownload
2006Mitigating Repetitive Loss Properties. FEMA ReportDownload
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Why Affordable Housing Needs an Income Floor
The POAH / Over-the-Rhine study on mixed-income neighborhoods and economic mobility.
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Key works — Housing
2024Thriving, Not Just Surviving: Making Mixed-Income Neighborhoods Work. POAH Final ReportDownload
2016U.S. Public-Housing Transformations and the Housing Publics Lost in Transition. City & CommunityDownload
2013HOPE VI, Colonization, and the Production of Difference. Urban Affairs ReviewDownload
2012HOPE VI: Calling for Modesty in Its Claims. Mixed CommunitiesDownload
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Stopping Displacement in a Booming City
From congressional testimony to inclusionary zoning — research that shapes policy.
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Key works — On the Record
2009Academic Perspectives on the Future of Public Housing. U.S. House Subcommittee TestimonyHearing record
2016Housing Policy and Inclusionary Zoning Feasibility Study. Metro Planning, NashvilleDownload
2014Equitable Development: Maximizing Affordability, Minimizing Displacement. Metro Planning, NashvilleDownload
—Policy Brief: Housing, Displacement & the Public Interest. J. FraserDownload
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Under review

Manuscripts in review and sponsored research in the pipeline — the newest of the work.
Under review
Geographies of Refusal: Black Organizing and the Long Spatial Struggle in Nashville, Tennessee, 1850–2026
Under review
The Limits of Cash: Guaranteed Income and the Reproduction of the Precarious City
with D. Oakley
Under review
After Reparations Washing: Cities, Racial Capitalism, and the Spatial Politics of Repair
Under review
Enforcing the Unlivable: The Police Imaginary in the Carceral Geography of Homelessness
with T. Davis
Under review
Organizing for a New Social Horizon — Contagiously, Collectively, and the Production of Locality under Racial Capitalism
with J.-P. Addie
Under review
Unsettling Property: Race, Precarity, and the Politics of Home at Fort Negley, Nashville

Grant proposals

Funded · Active
Trojan Pathways: An AI-Integrated Faculty Toolkit for Individualized Student Learning
University Faculty Fellowship, Virginia State University · awarded by Provost Dr. Tia Minnis · funded by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund · PI · 2026–2027
Read the proposal ▸
Under review
Building Housing or Capitalizing Land? Causal Evidence from Richmond and Atlanta Opportunity Zones, and TRACT, a Decision-Support System for OZ 2.0
U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development, PD&R · PI · $1.5M · with D. Oakley, D. Yoo & T. Davis
Under review
Artificial Intelligence: Scaffolding or Substitution for Critical Thinking
Spencer Foundation · PI: D. Yoo · with D. Oakley & J. Fraser
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Featured writing

A first taste — the full catalog of articles, books, reports, and op-eds lives in the Library.
01 · Urban Beyond Gentrification: Mobilizing Communities and Claiming Space Urban Geography, 2004 Download PDF 02 · Environment Historical Waterscape Trajectories That Need Care Journal of Political Ecology, 2017 Download PDF 03 · Housing Thriving, Not Just Surviving: Making Mixed-Income Neighborhoods Work POAH Communities, Final Report, 2024 Download PDF 01 · Urban After Gentrification: Social Mix, Settler Colonialism, and Cruel Optimism Antipode, 2019 Download PDF 01 · Urban The Significance of Twentieth-Century Urban Renewal for Reparative Planning and Racial Reparations The Performative City, 2025 Download PDF 04 · On the Record Curriculum Vitae Appointments, publications, awards, and service — the complete record View the full CV

This is just the marquee — the full catalog of articles, books, reports, and op-eds lives in The Library ▸