Education:
Ph.D., Columbia University - 2006 (Sociology)
Areas of Expertise:
Smithsimon studies how the design of urban spaces affects the social relations that occur there, and how the shape of public spaces can foster inclusion or exclusion, segregation or integration, social life or social isolation. He has written about how residents of Battery Park City rebuilt their community after September 11, and how developers and architects shape public plazas to influence the use of those spaces. His current project is a study of an African American middle-class suburb.
Books and Publications
September 12: Community and Neighborhood Recovery at Ground Zero. New York University Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2011
Smithsimon, Gregory C. and Benjamin Shepard. The Beach Beneath the Streets: Exclusion, Control, and Play in Public Space. SUNY Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2011
"Inside the Empire: Ethnography of a Global Citadel." Urban Studies. 47.4, April. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Smithsimon, Gregory C., Jennifer Candipan, Roberta Cordeau, Mark Peterson, Nicole Riordan, Celeste Roeller, Bengisu Peker, Tisha-Luwana Holdbrooks, Danielle Shallow. "Revising Canarsie: Racial Transition and Neighborhood Stability in Brooklyn." The World in Brooklyn: Gentrification, Immigration, and Ethnic Politics in a Global City. Lexington Books. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2010
"Sunset in the Imperial City: How New York's Public Spaces Presage the End of Empire." Journal of Aesthetics and Protest 6. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
"Empty by Design: Bonus Plazas and the Creation of Public Space." Urban Affairs Review 43.3, January: 325-50. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008