In Deep Water: The Role of Municipal Debt in Environmental Crises and Racial Disparities

Dr. Louise Seamster is an Assistant Professor in Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, and a Nonresident Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. She studies race and economic inequality, particularly in cities, and writes about racial politics and urban development, emergency financial management, debt, and the myth of racial progress. One line of her research examines racial disparities in debt and debt markets, including “predatory inclusion” in student debt, and the different meaning of debt for black and white families. She has published in Contexts, Sociological Theory, Du Bois Review, Social Currents, Environment, and Planning A: Society and Space, and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

The talks, which are free and open to the public, will also be livestreamed on YouTube. U-M students can participate in the series as a one-credit course – look for it as SWK 503 section 001.