Expertise:
Urban Sociology, Development, Globalization, Political Sociology, Space & Place, Latin America, Southern Europe, Qualitative Methods, Contemporary Theory

Biography and interests:
Professor Centner, an urban sociologist, joined the Department in 2008. He is currently completing a book manuscript about neighborhood redevelopment amid IMF-inspired reforms in Buenos Aires, where he has completed more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork. Ryan is also working on several articles and other projects that grapple with urban social change and its connections to larger political struggles and the remaking of material space.

His future research involves returning to Argentina, while also expanding fieldwork to Turkey and Brazil, to examine debacles over identity representation, urban landscape interventions, and geopolitical alignments, especially as these are manifest in major events in the major cities of each country – the Argentine Bicentennial in Buenos Aires, the European Capital of Culture in Istanbul, and the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He is also interested in local community research in the Boston area.

Ryan's teaching draws on his research expertise in cities and development to enrich lessons in the classroom. Currently he teaches an urban sequence – Urban Sociology and an advanced seminar, Cities of the Global South – as well as Globalization & Social Change and other courses on power, space, and society, often with some fieldwork component. In summer 2010, Ryan taught a new seminar about Islam & Europe for the Tufts-in-Talloires program in the French Alps. Previously, he has taught Sociology of the Built Environment, Sociology of Development & Globalization, and Sociology of Leadership.

Ryan is active in several interdisciplinary programs at Tufts: working as core faculty for both Latin American Studies and International Relations, serving on the steering committee of Leadership Studies, and teaching cross-listed courses in Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning. He is also one of the co-founders of the Tufts University Transnational Studies Working Group.

Advising and coauthorship are important endeavors for Ryan. He has advised theses and other research projects in Sociology, International Relations, American Studies, and for the Tufts Institute for the Environment. He is developing working papers with current and former students on topics as diverse as environmental practices of the urban middle classes in India, the gendered geopolitical dynamics of online microloan programs, and the resettlement experiences of Iraqi refugees in Boston and surrounding municipalities.

Beyond his research, teaching, and advising, Ryan enjoys travel, photography, Latin American films, everyday urban explorations, and improving his Portuguese and Turkish skills.

Publications:

Peer-reviewed articles and chapters:
Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2012) "Techniques of Absence in Participatory Budgeting: Space, Difference, and Governmentality across Buenos Aires." Bulletin of Latin American Research.

Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2011) "Microcitizenships: Fractious Forms of Belonging after Argentine Neoliberalism." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Centner, Ryan. (2011) "Ways Out of Crisis in Buenos Aires: Translocal Landscapes and the Activation of Mobile Resources," in Translocal Geographies: Spaces, Places and Connections, edited by Katherine Brickell and Ayona Datta. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.

Centner, Ryan. (2010) "Spatializing Distinction in Cities of the Global South: Volatile Terrains of Morality and Citizenship among Middle Classes." Political Power & Social Theory 21: 281-298.

Centner, Ryan. (2010) "Cities and Strategic Elsewheres: Developments in the Transnational Politics of Remaking Urban Space." New Global Studies 4(1): 1-7.

Centner, Ryan. (2009) "Conflictive Sustainability Landscapes: The Neoliberal Quagmire of Urban Environmental Planning in Buenos Aires." Local Environment 14(2): 175-194.

Centner, Ryan. (2008) "Places of Privileged Consumption Practices: Spatial Capital, the Dot-Com Habitus, and San Francisco's Internet Boom." City & Community 7(3): 193-223.

Centner, Ryan. (2007) "Redevelopment from Crisis to Crisis: Urban Fixes of Structural Adjustment in Argentina" Berkeley Journal of Sociology 51: 3-32.

Other publications:
Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2011) "Migration to and within Latin America, 1945-Present." World History Encyclopedia, edited by Alfred Andrea, Kevin McGeough, and William Mierse. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Press.

Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2011) "Migration to Latin America, 1900-1945." World History Encyclopedia, edited by Alfred Andrea, Kevin McGeough, and William Mierse. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Press.

Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2011) "Asian Migration to Latin America." World History Encyclopedia, edited by Alfred Andrea, Kevin McGeough, and William Mierse. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Press.

Centner, Ryan. (2010) "Structural Adjustment." Encyclopedia of Geography, edited by Barney Warf. London: Sage.

Works in progress:
Centner, Ryan. "Moving Away, Moving On: Divergent Political Paths from Gentrifying Buenos Aires Neighborhoods." (article manuscript, under review)

Centner, Ryan (with Carmen Rojas). "Differentiations of 'the Right to the City' in São Paulo, Caracas, and Buenos Aires." (article manuscript, under review)

Centner, Ryan. "Redevelopmental States and Redevelopmentalities: Marking New Analytic Terrain." (article manuscript, in preparation)

Centner, Ryan. "The Urbanism of Adjustment: Development Models at an Unintended Scale." (article manuscript, in preparation)

Centner, Ryan. "Spatial Capital: The Power to Take Place." (article manuscript, in preparation)