Education

2024    Graduate Certificate, Urban Humanities, UCLA

2022    M.S. Geography, Minor in Applied Anthropology, The University of North Texas

2020    B.S. Geography, Minor in Anthropology, summa cum laude, The University of North Texas

Research

I am a community-engaged researcher whose work addresses questions of displacement, redevelopment, and the shifting role of the state in producing and managing urban inequality. Combining critical urban theory with grounded qualitative methods, I examine how policy, displacement, and grassroots movements shape cities.

Areas of interest:

Urban governance and state–society relations;
Racial capitalism, urban marginality, and displacement;
Housing and environmental justice;
Urban planning and policy;
Multiculturalism and urban diversity;
Qualitative research methods

Selected Publications

Kirk, R. (2025). Financialization and the reorganization of U.S. public housing. Human Geography, 0(0), 1–11. DOI: 10.1177/19427786251396898

Kirk, R. (2025). Public housing: A moral case for its dignified revival. Shelterforce. https://shelterforce.org/2025/08/15/public-housing-a-moral-case-for-its-dignified-revival/

Kirk, R. (2025). For a political geography of artificial intelligence: Fighting ghost work, exploitation, and the making of a global digital underclass. Antipode. https://antipodeonline.org/2025/07/30/for-a-political-geography-of-ai/

Ferrer, A., & Kirk, R. (2025). Urbicidal economics and the racial geographies of triage. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 49(2), 304–321. DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13301

Kirk, R. (2024). Neoliberal necropolitics and the global competition for urban dominance. Geoforum, 155, 104107. DOI:10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104107

Kirk, R., & Behm, D. (2024). Contesting elite capture: Repositioning insurgent planning for mass movements. Human Geography, 16(3), 347–352. DOI: 10.1177/19427786241263635

Kirk, R. (2024). Legitimising displacement: Academic discourse, territorial stigmatisation and gentrification. Urban Studies, 61(13), 2492–2512. DOI: 10.1177/00420980241235015

Kirk, R. (2024). What Los Angeles tells us about Dracula urbanism. Urban Geography, 45(4), 652–670. DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2023.2226551

Kirk, R. (2023). Changing urban fabrics: Thinking through the lopsided city. Dialogues in Urban Research, 3(1), 288–292. DOI: 10.1177/27541258231204007

Kirk, R. (2023). Neoliberal multiculturalism in Dallas: The discursive foundations of diversity-led gentrification in an aspiring U.S. global city. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 55(6), 1392–1407. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X231152258

Kirk, R. (2023). Lifestyle centers, the next boom and bust after shopping malls? Governance, public-private partnerships, and Guy Debord’s spectacle in Dallas-Fort Worth. Cities, 133, 104155. DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2022.104155

Grants & Awards

Howard and Irene Levine Program in Housing and Social Responsibility Research Grant 2025–2026  — Ziman Center for Real Estate

2025 Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship — The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation

2025 Summer Mentored Research Fellowship — UCLA

2023 Institute of Human Geography Research Grant — Institute of Human Geography

Voertman-Ardoin Graduate Fellowship 2020–2022 — The University of North Texas

2020 F. Andrew Schoolmaster Award to Outstanding Undergraduate Student — The University of North Texas

Advisors

John Agnew, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and Italian (Committee Chair)

Kelly Kay, Associate Professor of Geography

Juan Herrera, Associate Professor of Geography

José Loya, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning