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.

Explore the work ▸ The Library ▸
01

The work

Four through-lines of the research. Expand a theme to read and download key works — or let the set alongside play a short audio or video overview of each.
Research themes.
Tap a theme to expand
01Urban
Featured
The Engineering of Exclusion
Gentrification, the Over-the-Rhine People's Movement, and the right to claim the city.
Video + audio›
Programs in this channel
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
02Environment
Featured
Why Homeowners Are Trapped in Floodplains
FEMA buyouts, repetitive-loss properties, and community-based flood policy.
Video + audio›
Programs in this channel
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
03Housing
Featured
Why Affordable Housing Needs an Income Floor
The POAH / Over-the-Rhine study on mixed-income neighborhoods and economic mobility.
Audio›
Programs in this channel
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
04On the Record
Featured
Stopping Displacement in a Booming City
From congressional testimony to inclusionary zoning — research that shapes policy.
Audio›
Programs in this channel
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
02

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
Virginia State University Fellows Program · 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
03

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 ▸