Deirdre Oakley

BA -- Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME (American History)
MA -- University of Albany, State University of New York (Urban Geography)
Ph.D. -- University of Albany, State University of New York (Urban Sociology)

Urban and Community Dynamics, Racial Inequalities, Urban Policy, Urban Geography and Spatial Analyses, Urban History

Research Interests
Professor Oakley's research focuses on how urban social and racial disadvantages are often compounded by geographic spatial arrangements, much of which are embedded in historical legacies.

Dr. Oakley is a Professor of Sociology and an affiliated faculty member of the Urban Studies Institute. Her research focuses on how urban social and racial disadvantages are often compounded by geographic spatial arrangements, much of which are embedded in historical legacies. She recently completed a successful three-year term as the Editor in Chief of City & Community, the flagship journal of Urban Sociology. Dr. Oakley has provided Congressional Testimony about public housing to the Financial Services Committee. One of her most recent reports on the status of women in Georgia 1970 and today was commissioned by the Georgia ACLU. She co-authored this report with Sociology Ph.D. Candidate, Ifeanyi Ukpabi. She received her B.A. in American History from Bowdoin College, M.A. in Urban Geography and Ph.D. in Sociology from University at Albany, State University of New York. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and spent most of her childhood in Williamstown, Massachusetts, about an hour north of Great Barrington where W.E.B. Du Bois grew up in the 1870s and 80s. Prior to going to graduate school, she worked in New York City for various magazines, including Vanity Fair and Fortune, while living in some thought-provoking neighborhoods.