My work is broadly focused on the policing of housing. My book project explores policing's role in racial segregation by tracing the past century of Black community making and housing struggles in the northernmost outpost of Los Angeles, the Antelope Valley.
Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice
University of Illinois Chicago
1007 West Harrison Street, #4050D Chicago, IL 60607-7104
Employment
Assistant Professor, 2018-Present
Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice
Department of Sociology (by courtesy)
University of Illinois Chicago
Education
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2018.
Committee: Darnell Hunt, Robert Mare, Vilma Ortiz, Michael Stoll
M.A. in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, Columbia University, 2010
B.A. in Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 2008
Academic Writing
Kurwa, Rahim. In progress. Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Remaking of Segregation in the Antelope Valley.
Kurwa, Rahim. Forthcoming. “Policing, Property, and the Production of Racial Segregation.” The Sociology of Housing. Forthcoming.University of Chicago Press.
Kurwa, Rahim, and Susila Gurusami. 2022. “Carceral Migrations: Reframing Race, Space, and Punishment.” Social Service Review 96, no. 2: 353-388.
Gurusami, Susila, and Rahim Kurwa. 2021. “From Broken Windows to Broken Homes: Homebreaking as Racialized and Gendered Poverty Governance.” Feminist Formations 33, no. 1: 1-32.
Kurwa, Rahim. 2021. “Review: The Upper Limit: How Low-Wage Work Defines Punishment and Welfare.” Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 50, no. 1: 33-35
Kurwa, Rahim. 2020. “Opposing and Policing Racial Integration: Evidence from the Housing Choice Voucher Program.” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 17, no. 2: 363-387.
Kurwa, Rahim. 2020. “The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers Turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” Housing Policy Debate 30, no. 6: 926-949.
Kurwa, Rahim. 2019. “Building the Digitally Gated Community: The Case of Nextdoor.” Surveillance & Society 17, no. 1/2: 111-117.
Kurwa, Rahim. 2015. “Deconcentration without Integration: Examining the Social Outcomes of Housing Choice Voucher Movement in Los Angeles County.” City & Community 14, no. 4: 364-391.
Public Writing
Op-ed: We can’t let policing become a new form of citizenship. Chicago Tribune. 2022
Guest Blog: Nextdoor in Context. Blink. 2019.
Guest Blog: Policing’s Role in Racial Segregation: 50 Years After the Fair Housing Act. Los Angeles Social Science Forum. 2018.
Selected Honors
Honorable Mention, Distinguished Article Award, Sex and Gender Section, American Sociological Association. 2022.
Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence (HOPE) Award. UIC On-Campus Housing. 2022.
Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence (HOPE) Award. UIC On-Campus Housing. 2021.
Early Career Researcher Award, Surveillance Studies Network. 2019.
Graduate Student Paper Award, Racial and Ethnic Minorities Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems 2018.
Honorable Mention, Graduate Student Paper Award, Community and Urban Sociology Section, American Sociological Association_._ 2018.
Graduate Student Paper Award, Poverty, Class, and Inequality Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems_._ 2015.
Selected Grants and Fellowships
UIC Institute for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship. 2022-2023.
Visiting Scholar, American Bar Foundation. 2021-2023.
Russell Sage Foundation Pipeline Grant. 2022.
Faculty Seed Grant and Grant Development Fund Award,College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Committee on Social Science Research. 2021.
Faculty Fellowship, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, University of Illinois Chicago. 2018-2019.
California Poverty and Socioeconomic Inequality Fellow, Blum Initiative for Global and Regional Poverty Studies, University of California, Riverside. 2018.
Research Grant, Blum Initiative for Global and Regional Poverty Studies, University of California, Riverside. 2017.
Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles. 2017-2018.
Hoffenberg Fellowship, Center for American Politics and Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles. 2017-2018.
Bunche Center for African American Studies Graduate Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles. 2016-2017.
Invited Talks and Guest Lectures
UIC Institute for the Humanities. Spring 2023.
University of Wisconsin, Madison. Institute for Research on Poverty. Fall 2022
New York University. Urban Initiative. Fall 2022
“Policing as Property.” Guest Lecture. Crime Law and the City. Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Denver. 2022.
“Policing as Property.” Guest Lecture. Introduction to Sociology. Department of Anthropology and Sociology. Williams College. 2021.
“Redeeming the Right to Discriminate,” Race Workshop, Duke University. 2021.
Panelist, “Radical Reimagining: The Carceral State and Abolitionist Responses.” Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy Symposium. 2021.
“Civil Rights in the Militarized Desert.” UCLA Urban Sociology Working Group. 2021.
“The New Man in the House Rules” Guest Lecture. Social Welfare Policy and the Safety Net. Lafayette College, Department of Anthropology and Sociology. 2020.
Guest Lecture, “Policing and Racial Segregation” UIC Law School Fair Housing and Fair Lending Seminar. 2020.
“Policing at the Frontier of Fair Housing.” UIC Law School. (cancelled due to COVID). 2020
“The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” Newberry Library Gender and Sexuality Seminar (cancelled due to COVID-19). 2020
(with Susila Gurusami) “ Carceral Migration as Theory and Method: The Sociologies of Race, Space, and Legal Punishment.” Newberry Library Borderlands Seminar. 2020.
“The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” Sociology of Housing Conference, Georgetown University. 2019.
“The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” Housing Justice in Unequal Cities Conference, Los Angeles. 2019.
“Policing to Segregate: Sketching the Contours of an Eviction Regime in Suburban Los Angeles.” Blum Initiative for Global and Regional Poverty Studies.” University of California, Riverside. 2017.
Conference Presentations
“Falloon’s Descendants: Policing, Property, and the Production of Racial Segregation.” Society for the Study of Social Problems. Los Angeles. 2022.
“Residential Segregation and Muslims in the United States.” Law and Society Association. Chicago. 2021.
“Carceral Migration as Theory and Method.” Society for the Study of Social Problems. New York. 2019.
“The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” American Sociological Association, NY. 2019.
“The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” Law and Society Association, Washington, D.C. 2019.
“The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers turns Personal Bonds into Eviction Liabilities.” Urban Affairs Association, Los Angeles. 2019.
“Policing to Segregate: Sketching the Contours of an Eviction Regime in Suburban Los Angeles.” Society for the Study of Social Problems, Philadelphia. 2018.
“How Race and Poverty Have Driven Changes in Housing Voucher Distributions Since the Great Recession.” American Sociological Association, Montreal. 2017.
“From Racial Resentment to Racial Rejection: How Local Residents Veto Voucher Movement to their Neighborhoods.” Urban Affairs Association, Minneapolis. 2017.
“Geographic Mobility and the Persistence of Racial Residential Inequality.” Society for the Study of Social Problems, Seattle. 2016.
“Housing Vouchers and the Re-Concentration of Poverty in Suburbs.” Society for the Study of Social Problems, Chicago. 2015.
“The Social Experiences of Tenants in the New Age of Public Housing: Comparing Outcomes in the Voucher Program to Findings in Mixed-Income Developments.” Society for the Study of Social Problems, San Francisco. 2014.
“Desegregation and the Persistence of Inequality.” Critical Ethnic Studies, Chicago. 2013.
“Barriers to Integration for Section 8 Voucher Users in Los Angeles County.” American Sociological Association, New York. 2013.
Courses Taught
UIC: Race, Class, Gender, and the Law (UG); Introduction to Poverty Law (UG); Criminology, Law, and Justice in American Cities (UG); Mapping Policing and Punishment (Grad); Processes and Institutions (Grad).
UCLA: Race and Ethnicity in American Life (UG); Social Stratification (UG).
Service to the University
Faculty Guide, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences “First at LAS” Program, 2021-2022
Honors College Mentor, 2020-2022
Department Curriculum Committee, 2021-2022
Department Hiring Committee, 2021
Department Social Media Committee, 2019-2021
Department Graduate Committee, 2018-2021
Rue Bucher Award Committee, 2019-2020
Service to the Profession
Editorial Board, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2023-2025
Chair, Poverty, Class and Inequality Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2021-2023
Mentor, AI Accountability Network, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, 2022
Graduate Student Paper Award Committee, Poverty, Class and Inequality Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2020
Harrington Award Committee, Poverty, Class and Inequality Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2019
Reviews: American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, City & Community, Du Bois Review, Housing Policy Debate, Frontiers in Public Health, Qualitative Sociology, Social Problems, Sociology Compass, Surveillance and Society, Urban Affairs Review