Meghan Wilson

I previously served as a Research Fellow for the Race and Capitalism Project at University of Chicago. My research lies at the intersection of public policy, urban development, and race analyzing critical questions regarding how public institutions, and those influenced by these institutions, imagine themselves in the future. As a scholar and resident of urban cities, one of those critical questions guiding my work is: Are there black people in the financial futures? As a critical race scholar focused on worldmaking, I seek to reimagine the urban spaces inclusive of black and marginalized bodies being key political and financial players. My book project centers public finance and urban development through a critical race and political economy framework, it examines how state and local governments think about the ever-present realities of budget deficits and crippling debt loads, absent new long-term revenue streams. Specifically, I consider the implications of cyclical financial distress on cities with higher populations of racially marginalized people, as well as, the ways public policy has been racialized in urban development.