Francisca Bogolasky, a Ph.D. candidate at the LBJ School, has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award, which is given by the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) to a promising Ph.D. candidate or early career researcher whose work demonstrates a commitment to rigorous and impactful research and service.
Bogolasky's research investigates the linkages between residential mobility and educational outcomes. With the stated objective of "improving the conditions and working for the rights of vulnerable and underrepresented populations," she studies housing, health and education in colonias in the Rio Grande valley of the United States and in impoverished neighborhoods in Chile.
According to the UAA's award committee, "This work is broadly relevant to both housing and education policy. In addition, her research has real-life policy implications. There is a clear intent for the research to both engage with the local community and to result in policy guidance that helps to address social injustice.
"Bogolasky's work is very relevant and makes a timely and needed contribution to the literature and demonstrates a commitment to urban scholarship," the committee's assessment stated.
Bogolasky's research interests include urban and education policy, with a particular focus in residential mobility, housing policy and segregation. In her dissertation, she uses mixed methods to explore the consequences of residential mobility for students, households and neighborhoods in Chile's Metropolitan Region. She holds an MPA from Columbia University, which she conducted with a Fulbright fellowship, and a B.A. in sociology from Universidad Católica de Chile. She has worked as a researcher in the Center for Public Policy at Universidad Católica de Chile and several NGOs. Bogolasky's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, and her Ph.D. studies and research are supported by CONICYT, Chile; the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES-Chile) and several university grants.
The UAA is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers and public/nonprofit service providers. UAA is dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life. Through theoretical, empirical and action-oriented research, the UAA fosters diverse activities to understand and shape a more just and equitable urban world. UAA sponsors the Journal of Urban Affairs, a refereed journal, that publishes manuscripts related to urban research and policy analysis of interest to both scholars and practitioners.
The UAA hosts an international conference each spring in a different city, and recognizes outstanding scholarship and service in the field of urban affairs through international awards. Although the 2020 conference was cancelled due to the current pandemic, award recipients are being announced now, and will be formally recognized at the next UAA conference.
Starting in 2020, UAA will sponsor a new refereed journal, Race, Ethnicity and the City, designed to create a discourse on issues of race, ethnicity and identity within and around urban spaces. UAA also sponsors Upsilon Sigma – The Urban Studies Honor Society, an international, multidisciplinary honor society dedicated to recognizing and encouraging excellence in scholarship, leadership and engagement in urban studies and related fields.