Sarah Mayorga-Gallo, assistant professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston
Sarah Mayorga-Gallo, assistant professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston, will deliver a talk on “How Whiteness Shapes Multiracial Spaces: Lessons from Behind the White Picket Fence,” at UNC Asheville on Thursday, Oct. 12 at 5 p.m. The talk will take place in Humanities Lecture Hall and is hosted by UNC Asheville’s Center for Diversity Education. The event is free and open to everyone.
Mayorga-Gallo is an expert in racial and ethnic stratification, urban and community sociology, Latino/a migration, and qualitative methods, and she is the author of the book, Behind the White Picket Fence: Power and Privilege in a Multiethnic Neighborhood. She is currently working on her second book project, which analyzes the social processes of inclusion and exclusion enacted by homeowners and renters in two urban neighborhoods in Cincinnati, Ohio — one neighborhood is predominantly white and the other is racially diverse.
“Dr. Mayorga-Gallo’s research examines multiracial neighborhoods as sites of racial inequality. Her findings challenge the idea that multiracial residence decreases the social distance between racial groups. Within the context of a multiracial neighborhood in Durham, N.C., Dr. Mayorga-Gallo skillfully demonstrates how white residents praise the diversity of their neighborhood while simultaneously enacting social control practices when engaging with their black and Latinx neighbors. She connects this seeming contradiction to the limitations of diversity as it is popularly understood — what she calls diversity ideology. This is a timely discussion for Asheville residents, who — faced with rising costs in the housing market — mustalso ask ‘who does a neighborhood belong to?’ and ‘how can we retain neighborhood diversity and improve racial equity?’” said Megan Underhill, assistant professor of sociology at UNC Asheville.
For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Center for Diversity Education at 828-232-5024 or email Deborah Miles at dmiles@unca.edu.
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