Isabelle Soifer is pursuing a dual degree, Anthropology Ph.D. and J.D., at University of California, Irvine. She examines fundamental issues of urban disenfranchisement of low-income residents by joint efforts of governmental institutions and powerful private interests in U.S. cities. She intends on decentering the U.S. city to understand how the tangled roles of corporations, banking institutions, businesses, government agencies, and developers in displacing city residents fit within the global processes of neoliberalism and the perpetuation of race- and class-based hegemonic practices. She engages in multiscalar investigations into how institutions use legal procedures to further their interests, and how local communities resist these practices working through the same system. By working at the intersection of global studies, anthropology, law, history, and public policy, she hopes to contribute innovatively to debates around U.S. urban planning, policing, and education.
