Becky Nicolaides

The New Suburbia

How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles after 1945

Becky Nicolaides

Suburban Scholar, Historian, Consultant

Becky Nicolaides is a historian and expert on American suburbs. Her latest book, The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945 (Oxford, Jan 2024) traces how the suburbs transitioned from lily-white to multiracial and reveals the compelling stories that unfolded through that change.

Becky has consulted for Survey LA, LA City, the State of California, she served on the LA Mayor’s Working Group on Civic Memory, and she is part of a transnational group of scholars collectively studying suburbanism in the EU and US. She is a co-founder of History Studio, a partnership of award-winning scholars providing expert research, script vetting, and original content for the entertainment industry.

She is launching a new initiative to help suburbs seeking to foster inclusive, welcoming communities, using The Suburb Toolkit.

Learn more about Becky

Becky’s events and projects

The New Suburbia: Book Launch
Vroman’s Pasadena, Jan 2024

See more photos

EU Erasmus+ Transnational Suburbanism, with Andy Wiese in Essen, Germany

Learn more

Community Engagement:
All Saints Church Pasadena, Jan 2024

Learn more

Latest News

Upcoming Events

May 13-14, 2024 | “Reimagining the Suburban Ideal, in Chicago and Los Angeles,” Conference on Suburban Studies, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
May 23, 2024, 11am | “The New Suburbia,” Cezar E. Chavez Dept. of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and Asian American Studies, Rolfe Hall 2125, UCLA.
June 4, 6pm | “The New Suburbia,” Historical Society of Southern California, virtual book talk.
June 16, 2:30pm | “The New Suburbia,” Lanterman House, La Canada, CA.
June 22, 2024 | “The New Suburbia in Pasadena,” book talk, Pasadena Heritage, Pasadena, CA.
July 1, 5:00pm | “The New Suburbia,” The Book Club of California (virtual).