Bisola Falola, M.A., is PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas, Austin. Her current research examines social and spatial mobility through the lives of urban minority youth. This research, which spans both the Global North and South, explores how particular places take on significance in shaping young people’s transitions to adulthood and life course trajectories. Her dissertation examines how the stigma of living in a marginalized neighborhood becomes formative as it influences and weakens young people’s ability to maintain high aspirations and consistently believe in upwardly mobile adulthoods. Bisola is also interested in conducting policy relevant urban research and works on issues related to socioeconomic and ecological gentrification and urban educational inequity.

Eric Tang, Ph.D. Is an Associate Professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department and core faculty with the Center for Asian American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a faculty fellow with UT’s Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis and the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. Tang has published numerous essays on race and urban social movements. His first book is entitled Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the NYC Hyperghetto. A former community organizer, Tang has been awarded both journalistic and scholarly prizes for his writings on post-Katrina New Orleans. 

Chelsi West Ohueri, M.A. sociocultural anthropology, is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UT Austin. Her research focuses on issues of race, belonging, and place, and her dissertation examines these social phenomena in Albania and parts of southeastern Europe. Her research has received funding from such entities as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Fulbright program, and the International Research and Exchanges Board. More recently, she has begun research surrounding race, place, and health in East Austin, where one of her primary concerns is health disparities.