Ervin Kosta
Ervin KostaAssociate Professor of SociologyChair, Sociology
Joined faculty in 2013
2012, Ph.D. in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY.
2001, B.A. in Sociology, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, TR.
2001, B.A. in Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, TR.
2001, Certificate (minor) in American Studies, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, TR.
Contact Information
Scholarly Interest
Ervin's research interests broadly focus on:
- urban sociology
- race and ethnicity
- immigration studies
- globalization theory
- qualitative methods
Teaching Experience
2013-Present: Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Associate Professor of Sociology
2009-2012: Pace University, Adjunct Lecturer
2006-2012: Fordham University, Adjunct Lecturer
Research
Ervin conducts research on the remapping of neighborhood structures in American urban areas as consumption, gentrification, and immigration replace Fordist dynamics of city building. His early research focused on research in Arthur Avenue’s Little Italy in the Bronx, which witnessed the making of immigrant group boundaries and remaking of ethnic neighborhoods in gateway metropolitan centers. More recently, he has focused on the study of the commercial transformation of urban areas in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, a multi-stage comparative project that incorporates student research conducted inside and outside the classroom. Lastly, Ervin has been conducting research on the history of winemaking in the Finger Lakes, and concomitant (re-)articulation of the region within local, regional, and global networks of expertise and cultural capital, consumption networks, and tourism flows (see an article on the Articulating FLX project here).
Courses Taught
- Globalizing Cities
- Urban Sociology
- Urban Ethnography
- Gentrification
- Public Space and the Right to the City
- The Making of Immigrant America
- Race and Ethnicity
- Classical Sociological Theory
- Introduction to Sociology
- Urbanism and Modernism
- Dynamics of Social Change
- Social Change and Social Development
- Social Problems
- Cars R Us: From Fordism to Electrification
Publications
“Small Cities.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. Ed. Lynette Spillman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.
"Centering Small Cities for Urban Sociology in the 21st Century," with Richard Ocejo and Alexis Mann. City & Community, 19(1): 3-15, March 2020.
"Commercial Gentrification Indexes: Using Business Directories to Map Urban Change at the Street Level." City & Community, 18(4): 1101-1122, December 2019.
"Becoming Italian, Becoming American: Ethnic Affinity as a Strategy of Boundary Making." Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(5): 801-819, 2019/4/4. [See a short write-up in The Society Pages, an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota].
“The Immigrant Enclave as Theme Park: Culture, Capital, and Urban Change in New York’s Little Italies,” in Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities, ed. Simone Cinotto (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014). The volume won the 2015 John G. Cawelti Award for the Best Primer of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.
“Jan Lin 2011: The Power of Urban Ethnic Places: Cultural Heritage and Community Life. New York: Routledge.: Book Reviews” International Journal for Urban and Regional Research 37, no 4 (July 2013): 1486-98.
"Bourdieu Off-Broadway: Managing Distinction on a Shopping Block in the East Village," Sharon Zukin and Ervin Kosta, City and Community, vol. 3 [2], 2004.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Ervin maintains an affiliation with the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS) and American Sociological Association (ASA), where he is also a member of the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS). He is also a member of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) as well as an occasional attendee at Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference.
Starting January 2021, Ervin is serving as City & Community's Book Review Co-Editor, alongisde Sofya Aptekar. City & Community is the journal fo the Community and Urban Sociology Section [CUSS] of American Sociological Association. Here is a conversation with CUSS Newsletter editors about a new initiative on non-English book reviews.
SERVICE PROJECTS
Ervin served as a member of the Geneva City Planning Board between Fall 2018 and Spring 2021.
Related projects:
Professor Kosta led a 2023 and 2024 Spark! Project on downtown GenevaProfessor Kosta and his advisee Clare O’Connell got featured on HWS Social Media on mentorship
Professor Kosta's Soc of the City visits the Cracker Factory
Chloe Sudduth's Honors Project "Upscaling Downtown" gets published
Six Members of the HWS Faculty Earn Tenure
HWS Sociology Students present at NYSSA
OFFICE HOURS:
By appointment.