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Heather A. Smith
Associate Professor, Director of the Urban Studies
Minor
OFFICE: 444 McEniry
PHONE: 704-687-5989
E-MAIL: heatsmit@uncc.edu
HOMEPAGE: Urban
Studies Minor
SHORT VITAE: To be added later
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TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS:
• Urban & Social Geography
• Immigrant Settlement & Adjustment
• Urban Revitalization & Gentrification
• Concentrated Poverty
• Socio-spatial Polarization
DEGREES:
Ph.D. (2000) Geography, University of British Columbia CANADA
M.A. (1993) Geography, Queen’s University at Kingston CANADA
B.A. Highest Honors (1989) Geography, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill USA
Junior Year Abroad (1987) Bristol University UNITED KINGDOM
PROFILE:
As an Urban Social Geographer my primary research and teaching interests
revolve around the intersection between transitioning societies
and restructuring cities. In addition to teaching courses such as
Introduction to Urban Studies, Urban Social Geography and The Restructuring
City, I have an active research agenda in the areas of immigrant
settlement and adjustment and urban revitalization and gentrification.
My immigrant based research, published in journals such as Urban
Studies and the International Journal of Canadian Studies,
has focused on intersections between concentrated poverty and immigrant
neighborhoods in Canadian urban centers and explorations of the
causes, processes and implications of Hispanic “hyper-growth”
in Charlotte, NC and the broader US South. With Owen J. Furuseth,
I am co-editor of Latinos in the New South: Transformations of
Place (Ashgate, 2006). My revitalization and gentrification
work has focused on processes of socio-spatial polarization in Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside and most recently on the unusual trajectory of
corporate-led gentrification in Charlotte’s Fourth Ward and
central city core. In collaboration with Bill Graves, this work
has been published in Southeastern Geographer and Journal
of Urban Affairs and forms the springboard upon which a forthcoming
co-edited book about Globalizing Charlotte is being developed. Graduate
research assistants are integral to the success and rigor of faculty
research endeavors and I welcome expressions of interest from current
and future MA and Ph.D. students wishing to join one of my research
teams.
In addition to my teaching and research within the Department of
Geography and Earth Sciences, I am involved in several other interdisciplinary
programs and initiatives both on and off campus. I am the Director
of the College and Arts and Sciences Urban Studies Minor (http://www.geoearth.uncc.edu/programs/undergrad/urbanminor.htm)
which facilitates the interdisciplinary study of cities and urban
dynamics through the lenses of sociology; anthropology; history;
architecture; political science and geography and am a faculty member
in the Latin American Studies (www.coas.uncc.edu/latinamerican)
and Public Policy Ph.D. Programs. I also serve as a Faculty Research
Associate at UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute (www.ui.uncc.edu)
where most recently I was one of the lead investigators involved
in a comprehensive needs assessment for Mecklenburg County’s
diverse and growing Latino communities. Off campus, I am a Senior
Researcher for RIIM - the Vancouver based Centre of Excellence for
Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis (http://riim.metropolis.net/frameset_e.html)
and a Research Consultant for the Mecklenburg Area Partnership for
Primary Care Research (http://www.carolinashealthcare.org/research/MAPPR.cfm).
Students interested in any of these programs or initiatives are
welcome to drop my office for further information and discussion.
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