Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
What degrees do you have and where did you earn them?
I have an AB in history from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and a PhD (and MA) in history from Columbia University in NYC.
What publications and awards best represent your work?
The book I am writing, Breaking Baltimore: How Public Policy Destroyed a Great American City, is about...how public policy destroyed a great American city. It is a biography of four generations of bad policy-making in Baltimore that "zooms out" to show how government decisions progressively destroyed American cities and "zooms in" to show how those decisions affected the people who lived in one African-American neighborhood in West Baltimore. My dissertation (also on the history of policy and planning in Baltimore) was nominated for Columbia's Bancroft Dissertation Award and awarded the John Reps Prize for best dissertation of 2010-2011 from the Society for American City and Regional Planning History.
Have you read any good novels lately?
The most recent novel I've read is probably Straight Man by Richard Russo.
What classes are you most excited to teach?
I always love to teach the Livable City and Social Context of American Education, both in the fall quarter. In the spring, I'll be teaching a new seminar for first-year students in the Core Honors program called "The American City." New classes are always a fun challenge, and I'm really looking forward to it.
If you had one piece of advice for students, what would it be?
Read widely and ask lots of questions.