Dr. J. Walter Paquin, an assistant professor of social work at Bluffton University, will address "Two Steps Forward, Still Three Steps Behind: African-American Homeownership in the U.S." at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, in Stutzman Lecture Hall in Bluffton's Centennial Hall. The colloquium is free and open to the public.

Paquin will present results of his study of home purchases from the late 1990s and early 2000s to determine whether households buy homes in better neighborhoods than where they rented.

Focused particularly on the experiences of black households in St. Louis, he found that while they buy homes in better neighborhoods, black households often buy in "undesirable" neighborhoods compared to white households.

Paquin came to Bluffton last fall after eight years at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, where he was an instructor of social work for four years (2003-07) and then an assistant professor for four more.

Both his master's degree and Ph.D. are from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. A licensed clinical social worker in Missouri, he also worked in the field for several years in St. Louis.