Noah J. Durst


Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

Michigan State University

About Me

I am an urban planning and public policy scholar whose research examines the causes and consequences of urban inequality. I have a PhD in Public Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. I joined the faculty of Michigan State University (MSU) in August 2017 as an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning (URP) at the School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC). 

My work weaves together research from the fields of urban planning, geography, public policy, and law in order to advance theoretical, methodological, and empirical research on urban informality, fair housing, and voting rights in the U.S. I have documented myriad structural factors that contribute to patterns of residential segregation, concentrated poverty, housing and tenure insecurity, exposure to concentrated forms of spatial inequality and vulnerability, spatial mismatches in housing and employment, racial discrimination, and threats to the voting rights of racial and ethnic minorities.