Derek S. Hyra

Associate Professor in Urban Affairs and Planning

Derek S. Hyra is an associate professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. His research focuses on inner city economic development, with an emphasis on globalization, national housing policy, urban politics, affordable housing finance, neighborhood poverty, and race. Dr. Hyra is the author of The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville (University of Chicago Press 2008). He is currently working on his second book, which investigates the topics of race, class, and revitalization in Washington, DC’s Shaw/U-Street neighborhood. Dr. Hyra’s research has been showcased in both academic journals and popular media outlets, including the British Broadcasting Corporation, Chicago Public Radio, The New York Post, and The Washington Post. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, he worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, investigating the predictors and consequences of the subprime lending crisis, and at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he examined the community-level impact of national urban legislation, such as the Community Development Block Grant, the Empowerment Zones, and the HOPE VI program. A former resident fellow of Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Dr. Hyra has taught at the University of Chicago, Brown University, and the George Washington University. He is also a research affiliate of the National Poverty Center, an affiliated scholar of the Urban Institute, and a commissioner of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Derek may be contacted by email at: dhyra@vt.edu.

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Chicago, Sociology, 2005

  • M.A., University of Chicago, Social Sciences, 2000

  • M.A., University of Kansas, Human Development, 1999

  • B.A., Colgate University, Psychology, 1996

 

Research Areas

  • Neighborhood Poverty
  • Urban Politics
  • Race and Class
  • Economic Globalization
  • Affordable Housing Finance
  • Qualitative Methods

Books and Chapters

  • Hyra, D. (in press). “City Politics and Black Civil Society: The Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville.” In M. Dawson (ed.), Fractured Rainbow: Race and Civil Society in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Publications.
  • Hyra, D. (2009). “City Politics and Black Protest.” In M. Marable, and K. Clarke (eds.), Barack Obama and African-American Empowerment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Hyra, D. (2008). The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Fawcett, S., V.T. Francisco, D. Hyra, A. Paine-Andrews, J.A. Schultz, S. Russos, J.L. Fisher, and P. Evensen. (2000). “Building Healthy Communities.” In A.R. Tarlov, and R.F. St. Peter (eds.), The Society and Population Health Reader: A State and Community Perspective. New York: The New Press.

Articles

  • Hyra, D. (2006). “Racial Uplift? Intra-Racial Class Conflict and the Economic Revitalization of Harlem and Bronzeville,” City and Community, 5(1), 71-92.
  • Hyra, D. (2006). “City Politics and Black Protest: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville,” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, 8(3), 176-196.

Works in Progress

  • Hyra, D. (book manuscript). Race and Redevelopment in our Nation’s Capital: Life in the Shaw/U-Street Neighborhood.
  • Hyra, D. “Neighborhood Poverty, Social Exclusion, and Civil Unrest: The ‘Black Belts’ of the United States and the ‘Red Belts’ of France.”
  • Squires, G., D. Hyra, and R. Renner. “Segregation and the Subprime Lending Crisis.”

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Faculty & Staff

Alexandria Campus Faculty

Adjunct Faculty

Staff

Blacksburg Campus Faculty

Adjunct Faculty

Emeritus Faculty

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