Event

A virtual live lecture with Dr. Derek S. Hyra, Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech
in the course Ethnic Economies and Globalization*

Wednesday, December 8
7-8:15pm
McNeil Bldg. Room 309

Dr. Derek S. Hyra is an associate professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at
Virginia Tech. His research focuses on inner city economic development, with an
emphasis on globalization, national housing policy, urban politics, affordable
housing finance, neighborhood poverty, and race. Dr. Hyra is the author of The
New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville
(University of Chicago Press 2008). He is currently working on his second book,
which investigates the topics of race, class, and revitalization in Washington,
DC’s Shaw/U-Street neighborhood. Dr. Hyra’s research has been showcased in both
academic journals and popular media outlets, including the British Broadcasting
Corporation, Chicago Public Radio, The New York Post, and The Washington Post.
Prior to joining Virginia Tech, he worked at the U.S. Department of the
Treasury, investigating the predictors and consequences of the subprime lending
crisis, and at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he
examined the community-level impact of national urban legislation, such as the
Community Development Block Grant, the Empowerment Zones, and the HOPE VI
program. A former resident fellow of Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois
Institute, Dr. Hyra has taught at the University of Chicago, Brown University,
and the George Washington University. He is also a research affiliate of the
National Poverty Center, an affiliated scholar of the Urban Institute, and a
commissioner of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

*Ethnic Economies and Globalization is a special topics course offered by the
Asian American Studies Program and the Departments of Sociology and Urban
Studies and the College of Liberal & Professional Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania