Dear RSF:

Please join us next Wednesday, January 31st, at 11 in the library and on Zoom for Visiting Scholar Angela Simms’s presentation, “Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Suburbia.” Click here to view the first chapter of her book as background.

Simms is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Barnard College. She holds a PhD and an MA in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Public Policy from the University Texas, Austin and a BA in Government from the College of William and Mary. From 2006-2013, Simms was Presidential Management Fellow and Legislative Analyst, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the United States President. Her areas of specialization include Race/racism, Black middle class, suburbs, metropolitan areas, political economy, and fiscal and social policy.

At RSF, Simms is working a book project investigating how ostensibly race-neutral government budget and policy processes create and sustain racial inequity within metropolitan areas. She is focusing on the experience of a majority-Black and middle-class jurisdiction’s capacity to maintain high-quality public goods and services. Simms is drawing on participant observation and interviews with 58 elected and non-elected leaders and residents of Prince George’s County (PGC), Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., which is the local jurisdiction with the largest concentration of middle-class African Americans, as well as budget information from PGC and neighboring counties.