Redlining, Racial Covenants, and the Utica Metropolitan Area Today

Dr. Jeff Miller will discuss explain what redlining and racial covenants were, share evidence of how they were employed in the Utica metropolitan area, discuss how the city and its surrounding suburbs remain in the historical wake of these segregationist practices.

Dr. Jeff Miller is Professor of Communication and a Fulbright Scholar (2007, Taiwan) whose current research focuses on the history and legacy of redlining and racial covenants to intentionally create segregated communities across Upstate New York. Dr. Miller has presented his research at regional, national, and international conferences, including conferences in Oslo, Panama City, Dublin, Krakow, London, and Stockholm in recent years. He also served as director of Films on Thursday, programming and hosting the campus film series from 1999 through 2025, and was faculty adviser to WPNR FM from 1998 to 2006.

Dr. Miller earned his B.A. in Broadcasting from Buffalo State College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from University at Buffalo. In 2007 he was Visiting Professor of International Communication Studies at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei, Taiwan. From 1997-2009 he served as a founding member of the Executive Committee of the International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), which has grown over the past twenty-five years to become the premiere academic conference in the United States for comics studies.

In his free time, he is an avid soccer fan and passionate supporter of Celtic Football Club (Glasgow, Scotland).