Becky Nicolaides

Suburban Expert. Historian. Consultant.

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

Becky has consulted on numerous public history projects, films, and podcasts, she served on the LA Mayor’s Working Group on Civic Memory, and she is part of a transnational group of scholars 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 gives talks to community groups about the history and future of our suburbs.

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Eaton Fire news and support

Like thousands of my neighbors in Altadena, I lost my home in the Eaton fire on January 7. We have been devastated by this loss, for our family, our neighbors, and our beautiful community. Click here to see the full extent of the damage.

If you’d like to donate to help fire victims please read this article - which emphasizes the importance of giving to local sources. These local organizations have been doing exceptionally good work:
The Greenline Housing Foundation
Altadena Collective
Altadena Heritage

I’ve joined the board of Altadena Heritage and I’m serving as a neighborhood co-captain through Altagether.org — both groups are working actively to help Altadena’s recovery.

My home on January 8, 2025

Nature fighting its way back on our burned out lot, July 12, 2025

The New Suburbia

How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles after 1945

* Winner of the 2025 Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History, Urban History Association

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Becky’s Latest News

Events and news

* UHA announces The New Suburbia wins 2025 Kenneth Jackson Award for the Best Book in North American Urban History

* Oct 9-12, 2025 | Becky will be on various panels and will co-lead a van tour of LA suburbia, with Andrew Wiese, Urban History Association conference, Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles.

* Read Becky’s quotes in these recent articles:

Wait, is America a nation of small towns?, Washington Post, June 13, 2025

America’s fastest-growing suburbs are about to get very expensive, Vox, July 7, 2025

* Two awards announced for the “Historical Housing and Land Use Study” for the City of Los Angeles - which I co-wrote:

2025 Los Angeles Conservancy Project Award

2025 Preservation Design Award for Cultural Resource Studies, from the California Preservation Foundation

* Coming soon:

Suburbia Reconsidered: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on a Global Trend, edited by Pavlína Flajšarová, Jiří Flajšar, Florian Freitag, Becky Nicolaides, and Andrew Wiese (Springer, 2025) - Becky’s chapter “Reimagining the Suburban Ideal: Forging Multiracial Community in Three American Suburbs.”

Visions of Los Angeles: A Year in the Southland, edited by Wade Graham and William Deverell (University of Chicago Press) - Becky’s chapter “Migrations”

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