Coffee Hour with Yingling Fan

Enjoy a free catered lunch, a presentation by Yingling Fan with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and conversation with students, staff, and faculty from the GES Department. Lunch will be available starting at 12:30 p.m. and Yingling Fan will present from 1-2 p.m. Those joining us for lunch must pre-register. Please RSVP using the event registration link above by the end of the day on Monday, March 11th. 

Segregation is a fundamental characteristic of American cities. Increasing research has shown that the segregation experiences in American cities extend beyond residential neighborhoods into everyday activity places outside the home and workplace. Using a multi-day smartphone survey that captures both people’s activity locations and emotional experiences throughout the day, Yingling Fan will present the first study to date that connects segregation experiences at third places to people’s emotional well-being at these locations. She found that everyday exposure to whiteness outside home/work neighborhoods has a significant and negative effect on the happiness levels among persons of color, but not among non-Hispanic whites. Everyday exposure to wealth shows negative effects on the happiness levels among low-income people, but the effects are not significant. Her results provide strong evidence that racial segregation at “third places” disproportionately harms the well-being of persons of color. Everyday segregation at third places is a social determinant of health that contributes to the persistent health disparities in American cities.