My name is Karina McDonald-Lopez, and I am a PhD Candidate for the University of Michigan Department of Sociology, a predoctoral trainee for the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research, and a National Science Foundation fellow. My research interests are in the areas of urban poverty, criminology, transportation, and neighborhood environments. Much of my work thus far has been place-based research exploring the interdependence of urban space and dimensions of social life including neighborhood effects, spatial mobility, and crime. With future research I intend to explore questions such as: Within cities containing acutely divergent neighborhoods, what systems of inequality incubate poverty and violence within certain neighborhoods rather than others? How does proximity to neighborhood crime and disorder affect resident perceptions and interactions with the criminal justice system? How do established social networks prior to incarceration shift post-incarceration, and how does this vary by geography? How does this impact recidivism? I am currently involved in two projects. First, I am working on mixed-method research examining the link between transportation, poverty, and social inequality. Secondly, I am working on research examining probation supervision as a criminal justice sanction and its relationship to labor market outcomes.
