The National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University®

Diversity and the Changing Suburbs

NCSS builds upon recent research to describe and analyze growing suburban heterogeneity. For many years, suburbs were frequently represented as homogenous bedroom suburbs for the white middle class. But today's suburbs include diverse groups of residents and workers, bound together in complex relationships of interdependency and exclusion, competition and cooperation – U.S. suburbs, for example, have begun to serve as entry points for international migration. The NCSS therefore researches not just racial, ethnic, and religious diversity among individuals and families, but also economic, social, and political diversity among suburbs generally, in the U.S. and across the world.

Celebration of Suburban Diversity – The NCSS' annual banquet, celebrating Long Island’s diversity and cultural richness that is key to our social and economic survival.

Teacher Diversity on Long Island in Public Schools

National Suburban Survey – Studies the opinions of suburbanites and their voting preferences, shedding light on the future of national politics.

New Cassel Report – A multiphase study examining the various groups that came together to initiate the renewal of this Long Island hamlet as well as the outcomes and related perceptions that followed.

Social Justice in Diverse Suburbs - Editor Christopher Niedt and his contributors shed light on organizing and conflict in the suburbs with historical and contemporary case studies. Chapters address topical issues ranging from how suburbanites actively fought school segregation to industrial pollution and displacement along the suburban-rural fringe. Social Justice in Diverse Suburbs also considers struggles for integration and environmental justice as well as efforts to preserve suburban history and organize immigrant communities.

Faculty Diversity Grants, LGBTQQIA Research Awards, Undergraduate Student Diversity/LGBTQQIA Research Awards – These awards, announced annually, recognize research or curricular on diversity and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and ally people on Hofstra's campus and/or in the suburbs.

Census 2010 Conference – Co-sponsored by George Mason University and Hofstra University and held in Arlington, VA, the national conference presented an opportunity for analysts to share their studies of the changes that have taken place since the 2000 census which had revealed striking patterns of new suburban growth, diversity, class segregation, immigrant settlement, and poverty.

The Diverse Suburbs Conference – A three-day international and interdisciplinary conference featuring academics, activists, and policymakers. Discussions covered mobilizing for social justice in the U.S. suburbs, routes to suburban revitalization, and why schools matter in suburban history and policy among others.