Nina Olney
Nina Olney B.A., Economics & Sustainable Architecture, Drexel University, 2021
M.A., Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2022
M.A., Sociology, University of Chicago, 2025
Email Interests:

Environmental Sociology, Social Theory, Urban Sociology

Doctoral Student (2023)

Nina Olney is a current PhD student in Sociology, studying how the environmental remediation industry operates as a distinct category of practice and mode of urban restructuring. In particular, this work draws on archival sources to understand the historical composition and transformation of urban soil over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Nina's previous research has examined the way that contemporary street tree policies draw on racialized notions of urban green space to enable environmental gentrification. Nina approaches these research questions with a mix of qualitative and critical spatial methodology in order to better understand the spatial logics of dispossession and cycles of de/revaluation related to waste and urban greening.