Angela M. Simms

Angela M. Simms serves as Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, with additional roles as co-chair of the Columbia Population Research Center’s Working Group on Urbanism and Neighborhoods and editorial board member for Sociology of Race and Ethnicity Journal.

Her academic foundation includes:

• PhD in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania
• MPAff from the University of Texas-Austin
• BA in Government from William and Mary

Professor Simms’ research critically examines the political economy of U.S. metropolitan areas, focusing on how Black middle-class suburbs navigate fiscal constraints to maintain public goods and services. Her work exposes systemic vulnerabilities in suburban governance through lenses of racial capitalism, inequality, and institutional capacity, particularly regarding education infrastructure and pandemic response mechanisms.

Analysis of her publications reveals consistent investigation into fiscal fragility within racially marginalized suburban jurisdictions, demonstrating how market forces and government policies undermine community stability. This scholarship bridges urban sociology, political economy, and critical race studies to document structural inequities in metropolitan development.

Honors:

• Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar (2023-2024)

Through her teaching of advanced seminars on race, suburbs, and development politics, Professor Simms mentors emerging scholars in critical urban analysis. Her research program receives institutional support through prestigious fellowships, while her leadership in the Urbanism and Neighborhoods Working Group fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration on metropolitan inequality.

She directs collaborative research initiatives through the Columbia Population Research Center’s Working Group on Urbanism and Neighborhoods, advancing empirical studies of neighborhood change and racialized spatial inequality.