Graduate Research Fellows

Rutgers Law School-Newark’s Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) is an interdisciplinary impact research institute dedicated to issues of structural inequality. CLiME’s research, publications and partnerships represent the University’s commitment to civic engagement and public scholarship, in Newark, across New Jersey, and nationwide. Our approach to structural inequality assumes that most racial and economic disparities are place-based and reflect the differences in resources afforded key institutions based on law, practical rules and operational norms.

CLiME is seeking Graduate Research Fellows for the Summer of 2026 to support the Center’s research projects and initiatives related to housing affordability, institutional investors and equity. The ideal applicant is detail oriented, works well collaboratively but can self-start and work independently, and is passionate about finding real interventions to address structural racism.

For the work this summer there is a particular interest in candidates with experience and/or interest in learning spatial data management and analysis skills in support of community partnership work in Newark.

The positions come with a stipend of $3,000 for the summer, which assumes roughly 20 hours of work per week spread two months (~$20 per hour) with some flexibility for working more/fewer hours per week for fewer/more weeks. There is a possibility for renewal in the fall. The projects we are seeking immediate support for include:

• Who Owns Newark’s Neighborhoods?: There is growing awareness of the role of corporate buyers in single-family real estate, and their potential costs to communities by raising prices, reducing the stock of affordable units to purchase, raising rents and fees, and displacement. Building on the knowledge and impact of Who Owns Newark?, this project involves working closely with community organizations and parcel-level data to develop a typology of investment and ownership classes in Newark neighborhoods, and to co-produce with community groups a roadmap for policy responses and interventions to mitigate negative outcomes from investors and absentee landlords in support of local housing stability and habitability campaigns. This effort reimagines local ownership as a broad category of alternatives to corporate landlords.

•PILOTS and Tax Abatements: Payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTS) and tax abatements have become commonplace in real estate development, with developers frequently claiming them as a right in many places. This project involves surveying PILOTS and tax abatement policies across New Jersey jurisdictions and developing a set of best practices for local governments in using them to push and advocate for more plentiful affordable housing and uses responsive to local residents’ needs.

•Rent control exemption and enforcement. Hundreds of localities in NJ have rent control ordinances. This is a rarity nationwide and offers great potential for local renter protections. However, various local and state policies exempt large swaths of the rental housing stock from rent control, including a statewide exemption on units that are less than 30 years old. This project explores the exemptions in different places, looking for opportunities to legislate or advocate for greater housing affordability.

•Who Develops Newark?: There is a tremendous amount of residential development occurring in Newark right now: last year 20% of all the building permits in the State of New Jersey were for construction in the City of Newark. Yet, we know very little about who is doing the development. This project identifies the largest developers operating in Newark, explore their various projects, and analyzes their impact on  the city from an equity standpoint.

• Developing Actually Affordable Housing (Tax Credits and More): In New Jersey there is a deficit of at least 200,000 low-income units. CLiME is looking to increase our understanding of different options for developing low-income units and seeks a student eager to dive into the weeds with us to understand how various funding sources operate. This project involves delving into the affordability standards and mechanics of how state tax credits pair with LIHTC (e.g.; ASPIRE) and other funding sources (e.g.; tax exempt bonds, tax abatement), particularly in New Jersey. Depending on the candidate, this project may also include researching alternative equity models.

Contact: Interested candidates should contact Dr. Katharine L. Nelson at katharine.nelson@rutgers.edu.
Applications should include cover, resume, and brief writing sample