Bio


Jackelyn Hwang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a faculty affiliate at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the Urban Studies Program. Jackelyn’s main research interests are in the fields of urban sociology, race and ethnicity, immigration, and inequality. In particular, her research examines the relationship between how neighborhoods change and the persistence of neighborhood inequality by race and class in US cities. Her current projects focus on the causes and consequences of gentrification and developing automated methods for measuring neighborhood change using Google Street View imagery.

Jackelyn received her B.A.S. in Sociology and Mathematics from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard University. After completing her Ph.D., she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Her research has been supported by the American Sociological Association, the Joint Center for Housing Studies, the National Science Foundation, among others. Her work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Demography, Social Forces, and other academic journals.

Academic Appointments


Professional Education


  • PhD, Harvard University, Sociology and Social Policy
  • AM, Harvard University, Sociology
  • BAS, Stanford University, Sociology and Mathematics

2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Cleaning Up the Neighborhood: White Influx and Differential Requests for Services SOCIUS Dahir, N., Hwang, J., Yu, A. 2024; 10
  • Systematic Social Observation at Scale: Using Crowdsourcing and Computer Vision to Measure Visible Neighborhood Conditions SOCIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY Hwang, J., Naik, N. 2023; 53 (2): 183-216
  • Curating Training Data for Reliable Large-Scale Visual Data Analysis: Lessons from Identifying Trash in Street View Imagery( 1 ) SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS & RESEARCH Hwang, J., Dahir, N., Sarukkai, M., Wright, G. 2023
  • Shared and Crowded Housing in the Bay Area: Where Gentrification and the Housing Crisis Meet COVID-19 HOUSING POLICY DEBATE Hwang, J., Shrimali, B. 2022
  • Racialized Reshuffling: Urban Change and the Persistence of Segregation in the Twenty-First Century ANNUAL REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY Hwang, J., McDaniel, T. W. 2022; 48: 397-419
  • GENTRIFICATION WITHOUT SEGREGATION? RACE, IMMIGRATION, AND RENEWAL IN A DIVERSIFYING CITY. City & community Hwang, J. 2020; 19 (3): 538-572

    Abstract

    Research on how neighborhood racial composition affects where gentrification unfolds yields mixed conclusions, but these studies either capture broad national trends or highly segregated cities. Drawing on the case of Seattle-a majority-white city with low segregation levels and growing ethnoracial diversity, this study uncovers an underexplored mechanism shaping patterns of uneven development and residential selection in the contemporary city: immigrant replenishment. The share of all minorities is negatively associated with gentrification during the 1970s and 1980s, and, in contrast to expectations, shares of blacks positively predicts recent gentrification while shares of Asians negatively predicts it. Increased concentrations of recent immigrants in neighborhoods with greater shares of Asians explain these relationships. These findings suggest that where arriving immigrants move limits residential selection in gentrification and shifts pressures to low-cost black neighborhoods. This study highlights how immigration and points of entry are important factors for understanding uneven development in the contemporary city and has implications for the future of racial stratification as cities transform.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/cico.12419

    View details for PubMedID 33041694

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC7546340

  • Unequal Displacement: Gentrification, Racial Stratification, and Residential Destinations in Philadelphia(1) AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Hwang, J., Ding, L. 2020; 126 (2): 354–406

    View details for DOI 10.1086/711015

    View details for Web of Science ID 000595193200004

  • Racialized Recovery: Postforeclosure Pathways in Boston Neighborhoods CITY & COMMUNITY Hwang, J. 2019

    View details for DOI 10.1111/cico.12472

    View details for Web of Science ID 000501986300001

  • Pioneers of Gentrification: Transformation in Global Neighborhoods in Urban America in the Late Twentieth Century DEMOGRAPHY Hwang, J. 2016; 53 (1): 189-213

    Abstract

    Few studies have considered the role of immigration in the rise of gentrification in the late twentieth century. Analysis of U.S. Census and American Community Survey data over 24 years and field surveys of gentrification in low-income neighborhoods across 23 U.S. cities reveal that most gentrifying neighborhoods were "global" in the 1970s or became so over time. An early presence of Asians was positively associated with gentrification; and an early presence of Hispanics was positively associated with gentrification in neighborhoods with substantial shares of blacks and negatively associated with gentrification in cities with high Hispanic growth, where ethnic enclaves were more likely to form. Low-income, predominantly black neighborhoods and neighborhoods that became Asian and Hispanic destinations remained ungentrified despite the growth of gentrification during the late twentieth century. The findings suggest that the rise of immigration after 1965 brought pioneers to many low-income central-city neighborhoods, spurring gentrification in some neighborhoods and forming ethnic enclaves in others.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s13524-015-0448-4

    View details for Web of Science ID 000369426000008

    View details for PubMedID 26689938

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4742432

  • The Social Construction of a Gentrifying Neighborhood: Reifying and Redefining Identity and Boundaries in Inequality URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW Hwang, J. 2016; 52 (1): 98-128
  • Racial and Spatial Targeting: Segregation and Subprime Lending within and across Metropolitan Areas SOCIAL FORCES Hwang, J., Hankinson, M., Brown, K. S. 2015; 93 (3): 1081-1108

    View details for DOI 10.1093/sf/sou099

    View details for Web of Science ID 000351528800039

  • Divergent Pathways of Gentrification: Racial Inequality and the Social Order of Renewal in Chicago Neighborhoods AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW Hwang, J., Sampson, R. J. 2014; 79 (4): 726-751
  • Where Do They Go? The Destinations of Residents Moving from Gentrifying Neighborhoods URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW Freeman, L., Hwang, J., Haupert, T., Zhang, I. 2023
  • Us versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods (Book Review) AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Book Review Authored by: Hwang, J. 2021; 126 (6): 1499-1501

    View details for DOI 10.1086/714030

    View details for Web of Science ID 000658835600011

  • Effects of gentrification on homeowners: Evidence from a natural experiment REGIONAL SCIENCE AND URBAN ECONOMICS Ding, L., Hwang, J. 2020; 83
  • Indigenous Places and the Making of Undocumented Status in Mexico-US Migration INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW Asad, A. L., Hwang, J. 2019; 53 (4): 1032–77
  • Migration to the United States from Indigenous Communities in Mexico ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Asad, A. L., Hwang, J. 2019; 684 (1): 120–45
  • A Place to Call Home: Immigrant Exclusion and Urban Belonging in New York, Paris, and Barcelona (Book Review) AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Book Review Authored by: Hwang, J. 2019; 124 (6): 1890–92
  • RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AND THE ROLE OF HOUSING POLICY HOW PUBLIC POLICY IMPACTS RACIAL INEQUALITY Hwang, J., Roberto, E., Rugh, J. S., Grimm, J., Loke, J. 2019: 28–55
  • Gentrification and residential mobility in Philadelphia REGIONAL SCIENCE AND URBAN ECONOMICS Ding, L., Hwang, J., Divringi, E. 2016; 61: 38-51

    Abstract

    Gentrification has provoked considerable controversy surrounding its effects on residential displacement. Using a unique individual-level, longitudinal data set, this study examines mobility rates and residential destinations of residents in gentrifying neighborhoods during the recent housing boom and bust in Philadelphia for various strata of residents and different types of gentrification. We find that vulnerable residents, those with low credit scores and without mortgages, are generally no more likely to move from gentrifying neighborhoods compared with their counterparts in nongentrifying neighborhoods. When they do move, however, they are more likely to move to lower-income neighborhoods. Residents in gentrifying neighborhoods at the aggregate level have slightly higher mobility rates, but these rates are largely driven by more advantaged residents. These findings shed new light on the heterogeneity in mobility patterns across residents in gentrifying neighborhoods and suggest that researchers should focus more attention on the quality of residential moves and nonmoves for less advantaged residents, rather than mobility rates alone.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2016.09.004

    View details for Web of Science ID 000389110100004

    View details for PubMedID 28579662

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC5450830

  • What Have We Learned about the Causes of Recent Gentrification? CITYSCAPE Hwang, J., Lin, J. 2016; 18 (3): 9-26
  • The Consequences of Gentrification: A Focus on Residents’ Financial Health in Philadelphia CITYSCAPE Ding, L., Hwang, J. 2016; 18 (3): 27-55
  • Gentrification in Changing Cities: Immigration, New Diversity, and Racial Inequality in Neighborhood Renewal ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Hwang, J. 2015; 660 (1): 319-340