Rahim Kurwa

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Department of Sociology (by courtesy) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). My work is broadly focused on the policing of housing, and I've published scholarship on this topic in Du Bois Review, Housing Policy Debate, City and Community, and Feminist Formations. My book project traces the past century of Black history in Los Angeles' northernmost outpost, known as the Antelope Valley, showing how pre-1968 methods of racial segregation in this region have been replaced today by policing. My other interests include the family implications of the policing of housing assistance, the interrelatedness of policing and segregation, and the history of policing in public housing and its successor programs. I currently serve as the chair of the Poverty, Class and Inequality Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. I received my PhD in Sociology from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2018.

Contact me at rak [at] uic.edu.

Access my curriculum vitae here

Students, get information about requesting a letter of recommendation here.

Zoom permalink here.

Academic Writing


Public Writing


Digital Humanities Work


News Coverage


Research Cited in Policy Briefs


Recorded Events