“[It's] like being ripped out of your house every day”: Studentification and Psychological Displacement in Proximity to the University of Southern California

The University of Southern California (USC) is a multi-billion dollar private research university, situated in a neighborhood with historically one of the highest rates of poverty in Los Angeles. In the last decade, USC has grown in both the size of its student body and its physical campus, transforming the physical environment and composition of the neighborhoods in which it inhabits. This disparity in wealth between the University and its students and the surrounding community has long raised the issue of gentrification and displacement. Drawing on the concept of “root shock” and the psychology of place (Fullilove, 2016), I investigated the psychological trauma of experiencing and observing neighborhood change on long-term residents of South-Central Los Angeles. In-depth interviews with 8 community members on perceptions of belonging were conducted to understand how individuals interpret and internalize changes in their neighborhood. Additionally, 3 in-depth interviews were conducted with USC students residing in off-campus housing to understand how students interpret their surrounding neighborhoods and communities in comparison to the long-term community members interviewed. The findings of this research suggest a spatial segregation of the neighborhood between what is occupied and utilized by University students and long-term residents. This segregation and studentification then drives changes in the neighborhood that disrupt long term resident’s networks of care and support, as well as their attachment to place, which can negatively impact the emotional and psychological well-being of long term residents of surrounding neighborhoods. This research thus probes the role the growth of a major non-profit university has in shaping the well-being of the surrounding neighborhoods.