Biography
Interest Areas
Cities, Place, Race, Urban, Community, Spatial
My work investigates the intersections of race, place, and community. Through mixed methods, I study perceptions of change, identity, and how place-based dynamics shape race, meaning, and quality of life. I take a person-centered perspective and identify how spatial contexts can be parsed to gain a more granular understanding of the dynamics of urban development and racial formation. The overarching question of my research asks how every-day experiences reciprocally relate to urban dynamics and shape places over time, specifically through processes of acceptance, resistance, and/or adaptation, which is to say: what are the bottom-up dynamics that affect the evolution of cities?
My dissertation focuses on a majority Mexican American city, San Antonio, TX. Through the case of a majority Mexican American community within San Antonio that is undergoing change and development, I use in-depth interviews, spatial demographic data, and cognitive maps to examine people’s relationship to place. With this research I seek to understand the reciprocal dynamics that shape community, ethnoraciality, and the experience of urban change.
Prior professional experience includes working in nonprofits as an evaluation specialist and in higher-ed working on experiential education
Previous Degrees
Bachelor’s from Tulane University
Master’s in Social Sciences from University of Chicago
Publications
Avila, Elisa, Rebekah Harriger, Dennis McCunney, and Benjamin Trager. 2024. “Exploring the Impact of Institutional Context on Experiential Education in Higher Education: The Importance of Institutional Culture, Faculty Relationships, and a Home on the Org Chart.” Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 7, no. 3 (September). https://doi.org/10.46787/elthe.v7i3.4007.
Stoecker, Randy, and Elisa Avila. 2021. “From Mixed Methods to Strategic Research Design.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 24, no. 6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1799639.
Avila, Elisa. 2020. Review of Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City, by Christopher Mele. National Review of Black Politics 1, no. 1 (January 21): 170–73. https://doi.org/10.1525/nrbp.2020.1.1.170.