Erin Michelle Graves, PhD

Bio:

I am an urban housing and community sociology specialist who received my PhD in Sociology and Urban Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT in 2008. I also hold a Master of Urban Planning and Policy from the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2001), as well as a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University (1997). My dissertation, “Constructing community: Class, Privatization, and Social life in a Boston Mixed-Income Housing Development,” examined the transformation of the East Boston Maverick Gardens public housing development under the auspices of HUD’s HOPE VI Program. This work received the “Outstanding Dissertation Award” from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. I also did my Post Doctoral work at MIT with funding from the MacArthur Foundation where we examined Chicago's historic efforts to redevelop their public housing stock, much of it into mixed-income housing.