East Lansing, MI 48825-1205
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley; Sociology
Associate Professor
Associate Professor LOUISE JEZIERSKI received her BA at Boston University in Sociology and Geography and her MA and PHD in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the Social Relations faculty of James Madison College, Michigan State University in 1997. Before that, she taught at Brown University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, Institute of American Cultures in 1992 at the Chicano Studies Research Center. She was a Lilly Teaching Fellow in 2000-2001.
Professor Jezierski's research interests include urban and community sociology; social inequality of race, ethnicity, social class, and gender; urban and regional political economy; and social movements. She has published articles on urban social and political theory, social capital and urban development policy, on the local management of regional economies, on public private partnerships and neighborhood organizations, and on gender, race and community formation. In the last few years she has completed various policy studies, including: Latino Community Development in Mid-Michigan Cities (2002) in Urban Policy Choices for Michigan Leaders, edited by Dozier W. Thornton and Carol S. Weissert, Michigan State University Press; The Effect of State Legislation on Sub-Prime Lending, a report for the Program in Urban Affairs, Michigan State University with Joe Darden (2003); and a disparity analysis and predicate study of State Government Contracting in Rhode Island with Hilary Silver of Brown University (1998). Her most recent research examines health disparities by race and class in metropolitan Detroit. She is presently writing a book that compares Cleveland and Pittsburgh's revitalization efforts, called Imagination and Consent: Reinventing the Post-Industrial City. Another current project examines the formation of Latino community identity in Hartford, Providence, and Boston.
The courses she teaches in Madison include, Social Theory and Social Relations, Social Policy, Social Movements, and Metropolitan Society which examines the metropolitan politics of Detroit, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. She has taught senior seminar topics on Identity and Community and, most recently, American Middle Class Politics and Policy.
Louise Jezierski presented the paper "Local Cultures and Regional Cultures: A Comparative Understanding of Niche Markets and Identities in the Global Economy" in Salvador, Brazil in July 2009 at a conference sponsored by the Federal University of Bahia.
Bryan Ritchie, Ross Emmett and Louise Jezierski are conducting a special research seminar that focuses on identifying the key public policy option that will help improve Michigan’s economic future. The seminar involves twelve hand-picked students that have an interest in studying the public policy of economic development. That class will first research the economic public policies of eight U.S. states and four international countries. Students will then compare the public policies of these regions in order to determine what is working to foster demand for high tech, high paying jobs and what is not. Next, students will compare their findings to the decisions being made in Michigan. Finally, they will prepare new policy proposals that will be presented to the MSU Board of Regents, the State of Michigan, and to private economic actors.
