A Town Blighted: Urban Renewal and Studentification in Chapel Hill

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Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper investigates the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s influence on zoning and development decisions made throughout the mid-20th century and its present implications for neighborhood change. Historically, I examine how research generated by the university and university-town financial partnerships perpetuated town redevelopment initiatives and the displacement of Black community members. Presently, I look at the university, rising rent costs and predominantly white student movement into student rentals in Black neighborhoods like Northside and Pine Knolls working in conjunction to further displacement. I will then draw upon prior work on the university’s role in gentrification (Baldwin, 2021; Carpenter, Goldblatt & Hanson, 2024) and reproduction of racial capitalism (Serrano, 2022) to critically analyze university-driven gentrification in Chapel Hill-Carrboro as a microcosm of modern settler colonialism.