Expertise
Urban Sociology; Race; Culture; Knowledge; Inequality; Research Methods and Methodology; Climate Adaptation and Public Policy; Environmental Justice; Social Theory
Biography
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, where I study how people use knowledge about the urban environment to produce various kinds of inequalities over time and space. My first book, Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City (Columbia University Press, 2022) examines the High Line in New York, the Bloomingdale Trail/606 in Chicago, and Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston to offer a critical perspective on the rise of the postindustrial park.
I am working on two projects currently:
The first is a National Science Foundation-supported study of urban adaptation in the U.S. and particularly the growing use of voluntary property buyouts as a public policy tool in recent decades. Together with James R. Elliott of Rice University, the current phase of the project involves surveying and interviewing people from areas targeted for policy intervention. Findings from this project have been published in Population and Environment, Natural Hazards Review, Social Problems, Housing Policy Debate, Socius, and Social Currents.
The second is a book project investigating the research methodologies of W.E.B. Du Bois. Co-authored with Jordan A. Conwell of the University of Texas at Austin, the project, titled W.E.B. Du Bois and Social Inquiry: Embracing and Transcending Research Methods, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press.
I received my Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University in 2017. Prior to coming to Temple, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University.
Selected Publications
- Kevin Loughran. 2024. “Environmental Authenticity: Constructing Nature in Postindustrial Urban Parks.” Qualitative Sociology 47: 441–463. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11133-024-09570-0
- Jordan A. Conwell and Kevin Loughran. 2024. “Quantitative Inquiry in the Early Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois.” Du Bois Review 21(2): 368-390. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X23000206
- Kevin Loughran. 2022. Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City. New York: Columbia University Press, https://cup.columbia.edu/book/parks-for-profit/9780231194051
- Kevin Loughran and James R. Elliott. 2021. “Unequal Retreats: How Racial Segregation Shapes Climate Policies.” Housing Policy Debate, https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2021.1931928
- Kevin Loughran. 2020. “Urban Parks and Urban Problems: An Historical Perspective on Green Space Development as a Cultural Fix.” Urban Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018763555.
