I am a third year doctoral student in the history department at Stanford University. As a Mellon Mays fellow I produced a senior thesis on African American perceptions of China during the first half of the twentieth century under the supervision of Professor Eric Foner. I have moved forward in time and now study post-World War II urban America. I hope to examine the social experience of shifts in the American and increasingly global political economy around topics of gentrification and urban redevelopment.