UC San Diego’s Sociology Colloquium Speaker Series offers the opportunity to learn about the latest research from leading scholars in sociology and closely related fields. Presentations are followed by Q&A.

Colloquia are typically held Thursdays, 12:30 p.m. — 1:50 p.m. in SSB 101 unless otherwise noted

2024-2025

November 20, 2024

Speaker: Tanya Golash-Boza

Title: Before Gentrification: The Creation of DC’s Racial Wealth Gap

Abstract: This talk will show how a century of redlining, disinvestment, and the War on Drugs wreaked devastation on Black people and paved the way for gentrification in Washington, DC. Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza tracks the cycles of state abandonment and punishment that have shaped the city, revealing how policies and policing work to displace and decimate the Black middle class. Through the stories of those who have lost their homes and livelihoods, Golash-Boza explores how DC came to be the nation’s “Murder Capital” and incarceration capital, and why it’s now a haven for wealthy White people. This troubling history makes clear that the choice to use prisons and policing to solve problems faced by Black communities in the twentieth century—instead of investing in schools, community centers, social services, health care, and violence prevention—is what made gentrification possible in the twenty-first.

Winter and Spring 2025 Colloquium Dates and Speakers are TBD 

Please contact us to list your events here.