Ariel H. Bierbaum | City Forum
School districts across the United States have closed thousands of schools since 2000 to cope with chronic underfunding and budget crises, declining enrollment, and poorly maintained buildings. Our knowledge about school closures has focused on battles over closure decision-making and the impacts of closing schools on communities of color in the immediate aftermath of these decisions. But what of the large, sometimes magisterial, formerly public spaces once at the center of community life? How do these now vacant buildings change daily life in the surrounding neighborhood? In this talk, Dr. Bierbaum will discuss her new co-authored book, Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia (University of Chicago Press 2026), which examines how school closures change the spatial and social arrangements of neighborhoods. Following a series of school closures in Philadelphia, the book draws from research in urban studies, education, planning, and geography to explain how race, place, and capital merge to influence the trajectory of closed schools in Black and Brown communities and their surrounding neighborhoods. Drawing needed attention to one of the significant consequences of school closures, Schools for Sale imparts a deeper understanding of the connections between place, race, and education amid broader urban transformations and prompts considerations for how school districts can work toward a new vision for public education and community development.
Dr. Bierbaum is an associate professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and affiliate faculty of the National Center for Smart Growth and the Maryland Transportation Institute at UMD. Her cross-disciplinary research connects the fields of urban studies, planning, and public education, and asks questions about how public schools and planning at the neighborhood, city, and regional levels interact and contribute to the perpetuation of inequality. Dr. Bierbaum advocates for political action and collective resilience in addressing the complexities of urban development and educational justice. She is the co-author of the book Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia (University of Chicago Press 2026). Her research also has appeared in the Planning Theory and Practice journal, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Urban Affairs, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Community Development, Urban Education, education policy analysis archives, and the Transportation Research Record. Dr. Bierbaum has over 25 years of experience in the non-profit and public sectors, working in public policy, cross-sector collaboration, community development, and community arts. She holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California-Berkeley, a Master in City Planning from MIT, and a BA in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
City Forum is a planning and urban issues speaker series coordinated by the UT School of Architecture's Community and Regional Planning program. The series is intended to provide a space for open, critical dialogue regarding crucial planning-related issues in Austin and elsewhere, and to encourage discussion of diversity, multiple publics, and social change.
All participants are welcome. Lunch will be provided; first-come, first-served.