Dr Austin Zeiderman is an interdisciplinary scholar who specializes in the cultural and political dimensions of cities, with a specific focus on Latin America. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University as well as a Master of Environmental Science degree from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Colgate University.
Austin’s research adopts an ethnographic and historical approach to contemporary forms of urbanism. He is particularly interested in how cities are planned, built, governed and inhabited in anticipation of uncertain futures. His book, Endangered City: The Politics of Security and Risk in Bogotá (2016, Duke UP), focuses on how security and risk shape the relationship between citizens and the state in the self-built settlements of the urban periphery. Austin has commenced a new research project on urban, environmental, and infrastructural transformations motivated by the promise of a post-conflict future in Colombia.
Aspects of Austin’s research have appeared in a range of venues, such as Environment and Planning A, Public Culture, American Ethnologist, openDemocracy, and the Guardian. He has received fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. From 2012 to 2014, Austin coordinated the Urban Uncertainty project at LSE Cities, where he remains a Research Associate. Raised in Philadelphia, he has previously worked on urban and environmental issues in Baltimore and San Francisco.