Michael Bader

Michael Bader

Associate Professor

Contact Information

Research Interests: Urban sociology, gentrification and neighborhood change, health inequality, demography

Education: PhD, University of Michigan

Michael Bader studies how cities and neighborhoods have evolved since the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He links long-term patterns of neighborhood racial change to the ways that race and class influence the housing search process. He has developed methodological tools that combine survey data with “big data” to study neighborhood environments.

Michael Bader's primary research focuses on how residents and businesses choose to locate in particular neighborhoods and how these choices lead to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequalities in Americans' well-being. In particular, he examines the location, causes, and health consequences of urban food deserts, neighborhoods with low accessibility to affordable nutritious food. In addition, he is developing innovative tools to measure the quality of neighborhood environments through the use of Google Street View and advanced statistical techniques. His work appears in top social science and public health journals including the American Journal of Public Health and American Journal of Epidemiology and Economic Geography and Social Forces.

  • 230.354  The City After Civil Rights
  • 230.612  Seminar on Social Inequality