Walter Julio Nicholls
About Walter
I am Dr. Walter Nicholls, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. My research centers on the role of cities in social movements and how immigrants develop political agency in hostile environments. I teach courses in urban sociology, immigration studies, and qualitative methods, with a focus on understanding the dynamics of cities, social change, and immigrant rights. My work seeks to inspire both academic inquiry and real-world action on these critical issues.
My Research
Read allMy research interests sit at the intersection of urban studies / planning, immigration, and social movements. My theoretical and methodological approaches are highly interdisciplinary, drawing mostly from urban planning, sociology, and geography. At the most general level, I am interested in how cities incubate the activism of marginalized groups (e.g., undocumented immigrants, low-income workers and renters, LGBTQ communities, working class African American residents, etc.).
Books
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The Immigrant Rights Movement: The Battle over National Citizenship
This book traces the immigrant rights movement in the U.S., from its grassroots beginnings in the 1990s to its national prominence, especially during the 2016 election. Initially united around calls for comprehensive immigration reform, activists sought legal recognition for immigrants based on their ties to American values. Despite significant progress during the Obama era, the movement faced internal divisions and challenges in confronting mainstream narratives, ultimately becoming entangled within the system it aimed to change. Get it today!
Public Talks
View all- Cities and Social Movements ❚❚ ⏹
- Make the City ❚❚ ⏹
- Civil Rights Movements ❚❚ ⏹
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Latest Publication
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Walter J. Nicholls and Ashley Hernandez (2023). The Contradictory Field of Community Organizing in the United States: A Theoretical Framework. Planning Theory.
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Susan Coutin and Walter J. Nicholls (2023). Adminigration: City-level Governance of Immigrant Community Members. Journal of Law and Social Inquiry, 1-30.
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Tara Fiorito and Walter Nicholls (equal authorship, authors listed in alphabetical order) (2023). Representational Hierarchies in Social Movements: A Case Study of the Undocumented Immigrant Youth Movement. American Journal of Sociology, 129(2): 485-529.
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Walter J. Nicholls and Marieke de Wilde (2023). Contentious immigration politics in a multijurisdictional field: A case study of Orange County, California. Political Geography, 100: 2-14.
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Walter Nicholls (2024). ‘SANCTUARY FOR ALL’ OR ‘SANCTUARY FOR THE DESERVING’: How Municipal Bureaucracies Mediate and Decide Contentious Struggles over Urban Citizenship. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
My Gallery
View allExplore a collection of images that reflect the breadth and depth of my work, from engaging with students in the classroom to conducting field research in diverse urban settings.
