Research
McHarris is at work on his next book, Brick Dreams: The Unfinished Project of Public Housing, which centers a high-rise public housing development in Brooklyn, New York. Drawing on ethnographic dissertation research, Brick Dreams, seeks to explore the day-to-day experiences of residents as they navigate concerns surrounding safety, policing, building conditions, and cycles of poverty.
In recent decades, local and federal governments have divested from public housing in the United States, worsening conditions for the 1.1 million units across the country that house over 2 million residents. Brick Dreams focuses on one such housing development in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
If the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) was a city, it would be one of the top-30 populous cities in the United States. In New York City, approximately 400,000 people currently reside in public housing—in addition to an estimated 200,000 additional residents who are not officially listed. New York’s public housing developments precondition the social worlds of their tenants. Housing disadvantage fundamentally shapes the social life of residents, as well as the broader neighborhood. Brick Dreams centers public housing residents’ experiences; in turn, it offers new perspectives on race, poverty, and housing across the country.
In another line of research, McHarris examines the role of anti-Black racism and spatial logics in shaping the trajectory and current structures of policing, and strategies employed by communities to end police violence. He is a recipient of the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. See here for an updated Curriculum Vitae
Selected Publications:
McHarris, Philip V. Beyond Policing. Legacy Lit | Hachette. (July 30, 2024). (Reviewed by Kirkus Reviews)
McHarris, Philip V. Brick Dreams: The Unfinished Project of Public Housing. Princeton University Press (Under advanced contract).
“Disrupting Order: Race, Class, and the Origins of Policing,” in Violent Order: Essays on the Nature of Police eds. David Correia and Tyler Wall. Haymarket Press (2021).
McHarris, Philip. 2020. “The Spillover Effects of Police Violence.” Social Psychological Review.