Ryan Centner
Assistant Professor
PhD, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley (2008);
MA, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley (2002);
BA, International Relations & Sociology, Tufts University (1998)
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Expertise:
Urban Sociology, Development, Globalization, Political Sociology,
Space & Place, Latin America, Southern Europe,
Qualitative Methods, Contemporary Theory
Biography and interests:
Ryan Centner is the newest member of the Sociology
faculty, having joined the Department in 2008. He is
currently completing a book manuscript about urban
redevelopment and global-economic pressures in Buenos Aires,
where he has completed more than two years of ethnographic
fieldwork. Ryan is also editing a volume on national political
shifts and struggles for local belonging across major
South American cities. In both projects, there is a focus on urban
social change and its connections to larger processes of reform.
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 to enrich classroom
lessons. Currently he teaches an urban sequence – Urban Sociology and
an advanced seminar, Cities of the Global South – as well as
Globalization & Social Change and Sociology of Leadership. In 2010,
Ryan will also teach a new seminar about Islam & Europe for the
Tufts-in-Talloires program in the French Alps. Previously, he has
taught courses on Sociology of the Built Environment and Sociology
of Development & Globalization.
Ryan is active in several interdisciplinary programs at Tufts:
serving on the steering committee of Leadership Studies, working
as core faculty for both Latin American Studies and International
Relations, and also teaching cross-listed courses in Urban & Environmental
Policy & Planning. He is also one of the co-founders of the
Transnational Studies Working Group.
Beyond his research and teaching, Ryan enjoys travel, photography,
Latin American films, everyday urban explorations, and improving
his Portuguese and Turkish skills.
Publications:
Centner, Ryan. (book manuscript in progress)
The Urbanisms of Adjustment: Boom, Bust,
and Blur in Buenos Aires.
Centner, Ryan (Ed.) (edited volume manuscript in progress)
Citizens of Another World: Urban Change and Citizenship Struggles in the
'New' South America.
Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2010) "Ways out of crisis in Buenos Aires:
Translocal landscapes and the activation of mobile resources," in
Translocal Geographies: Spaces, Places and
Connections, edited by Ayona Datta and Katherine Brickell. Aldershot, UK:
Ashgate Publishing.
Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2010) "Structural Adjustment."
Encyclopedia of Geography. London:
Sage.
Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2010) "Migration to and within Latin America,
1945-Present. World History Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Press.
Centner, Ryan. (forthcoming 2010) "Migration to Latin America, 1900-1945.
World History Encyclopedia. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Press.
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.
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