Alice O'Connor

Alice O'Connor is a Professor of History and Director of the UCSB Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (1991) and specializes in 20th- and 21st-century U.S. history with a focus on inequality, public policy, urban politics, and the political economy of housing. Her work bridges historical analysis with contemporary social justice initiatives, particularly through the Blum Center's community-engaged research and policy projects.

Her research interests include the dynamics of wealth and poverty, social and urban policy, the politics of knowledge production, and the role of organized philanthropy in shaping political agendas. She contributes to UCSB's History of Public Policy and Law major and oversees the Minor in Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration on equity issues.

Publications include Poverty Knowledge (2001), Urban Inequality (2001), and Beyond the New Deal Order (2019). Her articles analyze presidential crisis leadership, global social policy comparisons, and conservative philanthropic strategies. Advising graduate students Nicholas Cohen, Nora Kassner, and Christina Roberts, she emphasizes policy-relevant historical scholarship.

O'Connor's work intersects with the Blum Center's mission to advance economic, health, and civic equity through collaborative research. Her teaching and scholarship address systemic inequities in housing, welfare policy, and political economy, leveraging historical perspectives to inform contemporary debates on poverty and democracy.