Urban Reads: Rachel T. Kimbro

4201 Main Street,Houston TX 77002

17 February, 2022

Description

Sociologist Rachel T. Kimbro will discuss her new book, “In Too Deep: Class and Mothering in a Flooded Community.” About the Book In a small Texas neighborhood, an affluent group of mothers has been repeatedly rocked by catastrophic flooding—the 2015 Memorial Day flood, the 2016 Tax Day flood, and sixteen months later, Hurricane Harvey. Yet even after these disrupting events, almost all mothers in this neighborhood still believe there is only one place for them to live: Bayou Oaks. “In Too Deep” is a sociological exploration of what happens when climate change threatens the carefully curated family life of upper-middle-class mothers. Through in-depth interviews with thirty-six Bayou Oaks mothers whose homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey, Rachel T. Kimbro reveals why these mothers continued to stay in a place that was becoming more and more unstable. Rather than retreating, the mothers dug in and sustained the community they have chosen and nurtured, trying to keep social, emotional, and economic instability at bay. “In Too Deep” provides a glimpse into how class and place intersect in an unstable physical environment and underlines the price families pay for securing their futures. About Rachel T. Kimbro Rachel Tolbert Kimbro (Ph.D., 2005, Princeton University) is the Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Rice University, Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Kinder Institute's Urban Health Program. Dr. Kimbro earned her M.A. in Sociology at Princeton and her B.A. in Sociology and Policy Studies at Rice. Following her doctoral work at Princeton, Dr. Kimbro was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she received interdisciplinary training in population health. Dr. Kimbro's research focuses on family and neighborhood influences on child health and wellbeing. Current work examines family and neighborhood influences on food insecurity and children's sleep. She is a Founding Faculty Member at Texas Children's Hospital's Center for Child Health Policy and Advocacy, a Baker Institute Scholar, and adjunct faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. About Urban Reads The Kinder Institute's Urban Reads series showcases recently published works on pressing urban issues by local and national authors. The Kinder Institute for Urban Research builds better cities and improves people's lives by bringing together data, research, engagement and action.