Hilary Silver
Associate Professor:
Sociology
Phone: +1 401 863 2559
Hilary_Silver@Brown.EDU
Professor Silver's research interests include urban poverty, racial and gender inequality, urban and neighborhood change, homelessness, unemployment, and social policies in Western Europe. She is finishing a book on grassroots initiatives to combat social exclusion and unemployment in France and Germany. In 2006, she received her third Fulbright fellowship to these countries, her second DAAD grant, as well as a grant from the R.I. Council for the Humanities related to her study of South Providence.
Biography
Since receiving a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, Professor Silver's research interests have included social exclusion, urban poverty and inequality, urban economic development, neighborhood change, and housing, welfare, and other social policies. She is currently writing a book on social exclusion while a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Based on her research and teaching in South Providence, her first film, "Southside: The Fall and Rise of an Inner-City Neighborhood," aired on RI Public Television last year. Professor Silver is an Affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University where she co-chairs a study group on "Social Exclusion and Inclusion in an Expanded Europe." She is a Book Review Editor of the ASA's urban sociology journal, City & Community. She has held visiting appointments at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Université de Lille, University of Sussex, New York University, and Columbia University. She has received three Fulbright fellowships, fellowships from the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg in Bremen, Germany, the Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique, INSEE, and INED in Paris, and School of Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. She will be a Visitor at Nuffield College, Oxford in Fall 2008. Other grants she received are from the National Science Foundation, DAAD, International Labour Office, Institute for Research on Poverty, Brookings Institution, and National Endowment for the Humanities.
Interests
Professor Silver's research interests include urban poverty, racial and gender inequality, homelessness and unemployment in Western Europe, urban development, neighborhood change, and social policies. She is finishing a book on grassroots initiatives to combat social exclusion and unemployment in France and Germany. In 2006, she received her third Fulbright fellowship to these countries, her second DAAD grant to study Berlin, and a grant from the R.I. Council for the Humanities for her study of neighborhood change in South Providence. Professor Silver is also editing a volume, Yankee Cities Revisited: New Immigrants in Urban New England. Professor Silver is a book review editor of the journal City & Community and an affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, where she co-chairs a study group on "Social Exclusion and Inclusion in an Expanded Europe."
A graduate of Columbia University, she has held visiting appointments there and at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Université de Lille, University of Sussex, and New York University. In the past year, she gave guest lectures in Norway, Denmark, Britain, France, Germany, and several American cities. In addition to her Fulbright fellowships, she has received fellowships from the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg in Bremen, Germany, the Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique, INSEE, and INED in Paris, and School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol, U.K. She has served as a consultant to the International Labour Organization, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and the federal and Rhode Island governments.
Awards
1975-77
President's Fellow, Columbia University
1977
Robert J. Levin Prize ("Most promise for scholarly contribution to sociology")
1987
"Best Article in Planning," Journal of American Planning Association
1988
Fulbright Scholar, teaching and research in the Sociology of Work, France
1998
Fellowship, Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, Germany
2001
Fulbright Fellowship, "Urban Planning in Berlin and the Neue Laender," Germany
2002-03
International Fellowship, University of Bristol, U.K., December-January
2003
Nominee, Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto
2003-04
Pembroke Faculty Fellow, seminar on "Shame," Brown University
2006
Fulbright Fellowship, "Islam in Europe," Germany and France
2007-08
Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
Affiliations
2001-present:
Research associate, ISERP, Columbia University
2002-present:
Research affiliate, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
2005-present:
Book review editor, City & Community
American Sociological Association
- Community and Urban Sociology Section
International Sociological Association
-Research Group 21 on Urban and Regional Development
-Research Group 19 on Social Policy
Council for European Studies
Social Science History Association
Eastern Sociological Society
Urban Affairs Association
Funded Research
1984
"The Greenhouse Compact," Ford Foundation
1988
"Why Low-Income, Limited-Equity Cooperatives Succeed or Fail," Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation
1990
"Privatizing European Welfare States," Institute for International Studies, Brown University (Travel grant to Paris and the Hague)
1991-96
"Metropolitan Restructuring, Neighborhood Change, and Concentrated Poverty" (with Michael J. White), National Science Foundation
1991-93
"Women's Family Constraints and Flexible Employment" (with Frances Goldscheider), National Science Foundation
1992-93
"Comparative Trends in Flexible Employment and Poverty," CNRS, France
1993-1994
"Theories of Social Exclusion" and "Exclusion in France, Britain, and the U.S.A.," International Institute for Labour Studies, International Labour Office, Geneva
1994
"Race and Job Dismissals in the Federal Government," Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Government
1995
"Policies to Combat Social Exclusion," Democratic Dialogue, Belfast, No. Ireland
1996
Wayland Collegium Study Group grant on "Providence"
1996
"Contracting between the State of Rhode Island and Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses: A Predicate Study" (with Louise Jezierski), Office of the Governor
1996-2000
"The Dynamics of Food Stamp Participation: Personal and Program Effects on Spell Duration and Episodes" (with Edith Barrett), United States Department of Agriculture and Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1999
"Social Exclusion in the U.S. and France: Work with the General Social Survey and European Household Panel Survey," Laboratoire de Sociologie Quantitative, ENSAE, INSEE (French Census Bureau), May-July
2000
"Social Disruptions, Inequality, and Health," Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques and UNESCO
2002
"Social Disruptions, Inequality, and Health," conference organization grant, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
2003
"Social Disruptions, Inequality, and Health," Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program seed grant ($10,000)
2004
"New Immigrants in Urban New England," workshop grant, Center for Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University
2004-06
Study group grant, "Social Exclusion and Inclusion in an Expanded Europe," Center for European Studies, Harvard University ($3,500 annually)
2004-05
Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst [DAAD] conference grant on "Social Inclusion in the New Berlin" ($4,000)
2006
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (NEH), Public Media Project grant ($10,000)
2006
Rhode Island Public Television and R.I. Council for the Humanities, short film initiative on "Here at Home: What Divides Us? What Unites Us?" ($1,000)
2006
"Social Exclusion and Poverty Dynamics," Chronic Poverty Research Centre and Global Poverty Research Group, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester ($10,000)
2006
Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst [DAAD], visiting research grant ($11,500)
