WELCOME

I am an Assistant Professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice (primary) and Department of Political Science (secondary). I study the comparative political economy of development with a focus on urban and distributive politics, the politics of inequality and social policy, and environmental politics in the Global South.

My book project explores the sociopolitical consequences of class- and race-based segregation across cities in Brazil and Mexico. It examines why some cities provide more public goods and services than others. I argue that politically polarized cities under-provide public goods. And critically, the geographic layout of cities –their layout of segregation– determine patterns of polarization and of urban cross-class political coalitions that form to address the spatial externalities between groups. My other projects examine deforestation in the Amazon, urban housing markets and the causes of slum growth, the politics of gentrification, urban climate change adaptation, and informal labor in developing cities.

I am a recipient of the Susan Clarke Young Scholar Award from the APSA Urban Politics Section in 2023. I received my Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 2023 and a B.A. in Economics-Political Science and Sustainable Development from Columbia University. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale Leitner Program in Political Economy and a Jorge Paulo Lemann Doctoral Fellow for research on Brazil. 

Contact
alicezxu@upenn.edu