Ken Kolb

Ken H. Kolb

Professor and Chair of Sociology, Furman University
Chapter Leader: South Carolina SSN

Connect with Ken

About Ken

Kolb's research outlines how people in underserved neighborhoods purchase and consume retail food despite the considerable obstacles in their path.

In the News

Opinion: "In Food Deserts, Don’t Just Invest in Grocery Stores. Invest in Their Customers, Too.," Ken H. Kolb, The Times-Picayune, November 7, 2024.
Quoted by Danielle Kaye in "Just Miles from Kroger’s Court Battle, a Food Desert Shows What’s at Stake," The New York Times, September 10, 2024.
Research discussed by Eduardo Medina, in "Sick of Your Blue State? These Real Estate Agents Have Just the Place for You," The New York Times, April 18, 2024.
Opinion: "Against the Current," Ken H. Kolb, 64 Parishes, December 2023.
Opinion: "Embrace Diverse Perspectives To Find New Solutions," Ken H. Kolb, Seaports Magazine, 2023.
Interviewed in "Greenville's downtown rebirth is coming at a high price for historically Black neighborhoods," South Carolina Public Radio, January 16, 2023.
Opinion: "Who gets to be 'revitalized' in Greenville? How and why Furman studied racial displacement," Ken H. Kolb, Opinion, Greenville News, January 11, 2023.
Interviewed in "How Century-Old Racist Deed Covenants Echo in Present-Day Greenville," South Carolina Public Radio, July 28, 2022.
Opinion: "What Academics Focused On Improving Americans’ Diets Got Wrong," Ken H. Kolb, TPM, April 27, 2022.
Opinion: "Infrastructure and Making Groceries, They’re More Connected Than You Think," Ken H. Kolb, Guest Column, The Advocate, January 20, 2022.

Publications

"Racial Displacement in Greenville, SC" (with Mike Winiski, Sam Hayes, and Catherine Lippert), January 2023.

An exploration of historic and current population shifts in the City of Greenville and surrounding Greenville County. 

Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate (University of California Press, 2022).

Explains why past interventions to help people in food deserts have largely failed and what it would take to improve food access in these communities.