Michelle Rabaut is a PhD pre-candidate in the department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. During her undergraduate years at the University of Michigan, Michelle studied Sociology, American Culture, and Urban Studies. Her honors thesis used ethnographic methods to explore the cultural boundaries between new and long-term residents in gentrifying spaces of Detroit. It was awarded the Virginia Voss award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women, as well as the Angell Award for best undergraduate honors sociology thesis of 2017.
Currently, Michelle’s research interests lie at the intersection of Economic/Organizational and Cultural Sociology. She is passionate about exploring the possibilities of anti-capitalistic life-making within late-stage capitalist society. Turning to the grassroots and creative economies emerging in post-industrial Detroit, Michelle asks: How do anti-capitalistic organizations protect the integrity of their mission while securing resources to keep them operating? What role does trust play in the building of social networks, and how do these networks translate to other forms of capital? Central to her work is the interrogation of the marriage of capitalism and white supremacy. As she explores the questions above, Michelle incorporates analyses of the entanglements of race, class, gender, politics, and history.
Michelle joined the URSA project in the fall of 2021.
