Faculty

Virginia Parks, Ph. D.

Virginia Parks is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Service Administration. Her fields of special interest include urban geography, urban labor markets, immigration, racial and gender inequality, residential segregation, and community organizing and development. She teaches courses at SSA in policy formulation and implementation and in community organizing and development.

In her research, Professor Parks analyzes the patterns and ramifications of spatial inequality, particularly as they manifest in urban environments at the intersections of race, ethnicity, and gender. Her primary interest is in how space and place bring about and mediate labor market outcomes, such as unemployment and low-wage work, for immigrants, native-born minorities, and women.  A central concern informing Professor Parks’s research and teaching is how local communities can respond to these patterns of inequality through various organizing and development efforts. 

Professor Parks received her Ph.D. in Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before her life as an academic, Professor Parks worked as a community organizer.