Between 1998 and 2004 I was more active (than I am now) in urban studies research, specifically on neighborhood revitalization and community. That work was done with my friends and colleagues Jim Fraser (Vanderbilt University), Ed Kick (North Carolina State University) and since 2005 with Csilla Weninger (Vanderbilt University). We are interested in discourses surrounding revitalization, the role of stakeholders in public-private community initiatives, and the role of academics in poverty amerlioration.

2004 "Small cities, urban revitalization, and re-thinking scalar relations: the case of a small southern city." Presented at the centennial meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Philadelphia, PA.

2003 Fraser, James C., Jonathan Lepofsky, Edward L. Kick, & J. Patrick Williams. "The Construction of the Local and the Limits of Contemporary Community-Building in the United States." Urban Affairs Review 38(3):417-445. [PDF]

2002 Fraser, James C., Edward L. Kick, & J. Patrick Williams. "Neighborhood Revitalization and the Practice of Evaluation in the United States: Developing a Margin Research Perspective." City & Community 1(2): 217-235. [PDF]

2002 "Representations of neighborhood revitalization." Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Baltimore, MD.

2001 "Addressing poverty in US cities: the roles of community-based and citywide non-profits in comprehensive community initiatives." Presented at the annual meeting of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Regional and Urban Development in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2000 "Shaping neighborhood revitalization: whose agenda permeates community-building activities?" Presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Association in Knoxville, TN.