Andrew R. Highsmith
Associate Professor, History
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
Faculty Affiliate, Center in Law, Society and Culture
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2009, History
University of California, Irvine
Department of History
200 Murray Krieger Hall
Mail Code: 3275
Irvine, CA 92697
Department of History
200 Murray Krieger Hall
Mail Code: 3275
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
20th Century U.S., Urban/Metropolitan, Public Health, Race and Class, Public Policy
Academic Distinctions
Winner, Best Dissertation Award, Urban History Association, 2009-2010.
Winner, John Reps Prize, Best Doctoral Dissertation in American City and Regional Planning History, Society for American City and Regional Planning History, 2009-2010.
Finalist, Exemplary Dissertation Award, Spencer Foundation, 2010.
Winner, Walter Rodney Essay Contest, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan, 2002.
Inductee, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, 1999.
Winner, John Reps Prize, Best Doctoral Dissertation in American City and Regional Planning History, Society for American City and Regional Planning History, 2009-2010.
Finalist, Exemplary Dissertation Award, Spencer Foundation, 2010.
Winner, Walter Rodney Essay Contest, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan, 2002.
Inductee, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, 1999.
Research Abstract
Andrew R. Highsmith is a specialist in modern U.S. history with particular interests in metropolitan development, public policy, racial and economic inequalities, and public health.
His first book, Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis, explores the spatial and structural barriers to racial equality and economic opportunity in metropolitan Flint from the early twentieth century to the present. An in-depth case study of the political economy of racial and economic inequality in modern America, Demolition explains how the perennial quest for urban renewal—even more than white flight, corporate abandonment, and other forces—contributed to mass suburbanization, racial and economic division, deindustrialization, and political fragmentation.
Professor Highsmith's current book project, A Toxic Republic: Life and Death along the Color Line in Modern America, is a broad national and, in places, transnational study of the root causes and consequences of racial health inequality in the US from 1900 to the present. Throughout this period, deeply inequitable processes of migration and metropolitan development regularly interacted with the rise of American militarism, mass consumption, economic globalization, and growth-oriented governance to shape lasting racial health disparities in the US. This book traces the evolution of such health inequities and their roles in shaping social justice struggles. At its core, the book explains why, despite generations of medical advances and health activism, members of disenfranchised racial minority groups have been and continue to be less healthy than their peers in the larger society.
His first book, Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis, explores the spatial and structural barriers to racial equality and economic opportunity in metropolitan Flint from the early twentieth century to the present. An in-depth case study of the political economy of racial and economic inequality in modern America, Demolition explains how the perennial quest for urban renewal—even more than white flight, corporate abandonment, and other forces—contributed to mass suburbanization, racial and economic division, deindustrialization, and political fragmentation.
Professor Highsmith's current book project, A Toxic Republic: Life and Death along the Color Line in Modern America, is a broad national and, in places, transnational study of the root causes and consequences of racial health inequality in the US from 1900 to the present. Throughout this period, deeply inequitable processes of migration and metropolitan development regularly interacted with the rise of American militarism, mass consumption, economic globalization, and growth-oriented governance to shape lasting racial health disparities in the US. This book traces the evolution of such health inequities and their roles in shaping social justice struggles. At its core, the book explains why, despite generations of medical advances and health activism, members of disenfranchised racial minority groups have been and continue to be less healthy than their peers in the larger society.
Publications
Books:
A Toxic Republic: Life and Death along the Color Line in Modern America (in progress).
Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Historical Studies of Urban America, July 6, 2015).
*Winner, 2016 Pacific Coast Branch Book Award, American Historical Association.
*Finalist, 2015 Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change National Book Award.
Journal Articles:
“Why Health Matters: How the Battle over Health Equity Shaped the Civil Rights Movement,” (article in progress).
“Nuisance Clustering: Race, Industry, and the Infrapolitics of Zoning in Modern America,” (article in progress).
“A Poisonous Harvest: Race, Inequality, and the Longue Durée of the Flint Water Crisis,” Journal of Law in Society (forthcoming, 2018 or 2019).
“The Neighborhood Unit: Schools, Segregation, and the Shaping of the Modern Metropolitan Landscape,” Teachers College Record 120, no. 3 (March 2018): 1–36, coauthored with Ansley T. Erickson, Teachers College, Columbia University.
“Rethinking Tiebout: The Contribution of Political Fragmentation and Racial / Economic Segregation to the Flint Water Crisis,” Environmental Justice 9, no. 5 (November 2016): 143–151, coauthored with Richard Casey Sadler, Division of Public Health, Michigan State University.
“Segregation as Splitting, Segregation as Joining: Schools, Housing, and the Many Modes of Jim Crow,” American Journal of Education 121 (August 2015): 563–595, coauthored with Ansley T. Erickson, Teachers College, Columbia University.
*Winner, 2016 History of Education Society Article Prize.
“Beyond Corporate Abandonment: General Motors and the Politics of Metropolitan Capitalism in Flint, Michigan,” Journal of Urban History 40, no. 1 (January 2014): 31-47.
“Prelude to the Subprime Crash: Beecher, Michigan, and the Origins of the Suburban Crisis,” Journal of Policy History 24, no. 4 (October 2012): 572-611.
“Demolition Means Progress: Urban Renewal, Local Politics, and State-Sanctioned Ghetto Formation in Flint, Michigan,” Journal of Urban History 35, no. 3 (March 2009): 348-368.
Book Chapters:
“Metropolitan—A Historiographical Survey,” in The Routledge History of the Twentieth-Century United States, ed. Jerald Podair and Darren Dochuk (New York: Routledge, 2018), 267–280.
Essays:
“Decline and Renewal in North American Cities,” Journal of Urban History 37, no. 4 (July 2011): 619-626.
“Jim Crow in the Vehicle City: The Strange Career of Community Education in Flint,” Uncommon Sense, May 2007.
Op-Ed Articles:
“Failing Flint,” Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0131-highsmith-flint-water-crisis-20160131-story.html.
Book Reviews:
“Review of Julia Rabig, The Fixers: Devolution, Development, and Civil Society in Newark, 1960–1990,” Journal of American History 104, no. 4 (March 2018): 1066–1067.
“Review of S. Paul O’Hara, Gary, the Most American of All American Cities,” Technology and Culture 53 (July 2012): 710-712.
“Review of Patrick D. Jones, The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee,” Law and History Review 28, no. 2 (May 2010): 560-562.
“Review of Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism,” H-Pol, H-Net Reviews, May 2006, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=283951160842622.
A Toxic Republic: Life and Death along the Color Line in Modern America (in progress).
Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan, and the Fate of the American Metropolis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Historical Studies of Urban America, July 6, 2015).
*Winner, 2016 Pacific Coast Branch Book Award, American Historical Association.
*Finalist, 2015 Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change National Book Award.
Journal Articles:
“Why Health Matters: How the Battle over Health Equity Shaped the Civil Rights Movement,” (article in progress).
“Nuisance Clustering: Race, Industry, and the Infrapolitics of Zoning in Modern America,” (article in progress).
“A Poisonous Harvest: Race, Inequality, and the Longue Durée of the Flint Water Crisis,” Journal of Law in Society (forthcoming, 2018 or 2019).
“The Neighborhood Unit: Schools, Segregation, and the Shaping of the Modern Metropolitan Landscape,” Teachers College Record 120, no. 3 (March 2018): 1–36, coauthored with Ansley T. Erickson, Teachers College, Columbia University.
“Rethinking Tiebout: The Contribution of Political Fragmentation and Racial / Economic Segregation to the Flint Water Crisis,” Environmental Justice 9, no. 5 (November 2016): 143–151, coauthored with Richard Casey Sadler, Division of Public Health, Michigan State University.
“Segregation as Splitting, Segregation as Joining: Schools, Housing, and the Many Modes of Jim Crow,” American Journal of Education 121 (August 2015): 563–595, coauthored with Ansley T. Erickson, Teachers College, Columbia University.
*Winner, 2016 History of Education Society Article Prize.
“Beyond Corporate Abandonment: General Motors and the Politics of Metropolitan Capitalism in Flint, Michigan,” Journal of Urban History 40, no. 1 (January 2014): 31-47.
“Prelude to the Subprime Crash: Beecher, Michigan, and the Origins of the Suburban Crisis,” Journal of Policy History 24, no. 4 (October 2012): 572-611.
“Demolition Means Progress: Urban Renewal, Local Politics, and State-Sanctioned Ghetto Formation in Flint, Michigan,” Journal of Urban History 35, no. 3 (March 2009): 348-368.
Book Chapters:
“Metropolitan—A Historiographical Survey,” in The Routledge History of the Twentieth-Century United States, ed. Jerald Podair and Darren Dochuk (New York: Routledge, 2018), 267–280.
Essays:
“Decline and Renewal in North American Cities,” Journal of Urban History 37, no. 4 (July 2011): 619-626.
“Jim Crow in the Vehicle City: The Strange Career of Community Education in Flint,” Uncommon Sense, May 2007.
Op-Ed Articles:
“Failing Flint,” Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0131-highsmith-flint-water-crisis-20160131-story.html.
Book Reviews:
“Review of Julia Rabig, The Fixers: Devolution, Development, and Civil Society in Newark, 1960–1990,” Journal of American History 104, no. 4 (March 2018): 1066–1067.
“Review of S. Paul O’Hara, Gary, the Most American of All American Cities,” Technology and Culture 53 (July 2012): 710-712.
“Review of Patrick D. Jones, The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee,” Law and History Review 28, no. 2 (May 2010): 560-562.
“Review of Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism,” H-Pol, H-Net Reviews, May 2006, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=283951160842622.
Grants
Grants and Fellowships:
Research Grant, Medical Humanities Initiative, University of California, Irvine, 2016–2017. Project: A Toxic Republic: Life and Death along the Color Line in Modern America (book);
National Academy of Education / Spencer Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2012-2013;
Fellowship for Recent Doctoral Recipients, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation / American Council of Learned Societies, 2009-2010;
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation / American Council of Learned Societies, 2008-2009;
Dissertation Fellowship, Spencer Foundation, 2007-2008;
Melvin and Janey Lack Graduate Research Fellowship, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan, 2006-2007;
Michigan Graduate Student Fellowship, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, 2006-2007;
Predoctoral Fellowship, Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, 2006-2007 (declined);
Doctoral Research Award, Nonprofit and Public Management Center, University of Michigan, 2005;
Humanities Research Candidacy Fellowship, Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, 2005;
J. Vann Memorial Fellowship, Department of History, University of Michigan, 2005;
Research Grant, Department of History, University of Michigan, 2004;
Research Fellowship, South Carolina Bar Foundation, Columbia, SC, 2003-2004;
Dean’s Research Grant, Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, 2002;
Research Grant, Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, 2002;
Regents’ Fellowship, Department of History, University of Michigan, 2001-2002.
Other Experience
Assistant Professor, Public Administration
University of Texas at San Antonio 2010—2015
University of Texas at San Antonio 2010—2015
Faculty Affiliate, History
University of Texas at San Antonio 2010—2015
University of Texas at San Antonio 2010—2015
Faculty Affiliate, Urban and Regional Planning
University of Texas at San Antonio 2010—2015
University of Texas at San Antonio 2010—2015
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6152
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6152
Last updated
10/09/2018
10/09/2018