Seth A. Williams is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology and the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences at Rice University. He received his PhD in Criminology, Law & Society from the University of California Irvine where he was a member of the Irvine Lab for the Study of Space and Crime.

Dr. Williams uses quantitative and spatial methods to study spatial inequality broadly, with a focus on housing and displacement, neighborhood change, and crime. His dissertation and recent projects draw on a political economy of place perspective to understand how the exchange-value interests of urban actors shape community well-being. Current work examines the role of no-fault evictions in gentrification processes; how exploitation in rental markets contributes to the relationship between neighborhood segregation and violent crime; and how eviction contributes to neighborhood change and crime over time. He is currently working with Dr. Brielle Bryan to study spatial determinants of post-conviction health.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Williams, Seth A. and John R. Hipp. 2022. “The Shape of Neighborhoods to Come: Examining Patterns and Trajectories of (Re)Gentrification in Los Angeles County, 1980 – 2010.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 54(2):265-294.

Lehnert, Matthew R., and Seth A. Williams. 2022. “Ellis Act Eviction Notices in San Francisco: ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ clustering.” The Professional Geographer 74:2, 221-230.

Hipp, John R., and Seth A. Williams. 2021. "Accounting for Neighborhood Effects When
Estimating Models using City-level Crime Data: Introducing a Novel Imputation Technique."
Journal of Quantitative Criminology 37 (4), 915-951.