Main Discipline(s):
Main Professional Societies:
Affiliation(s):
- Sociology
- American Sociological Association
- Wayne State University, Department of Sociology
I have two major foci right now. A book project examining how sociopolitical threats — interior immigration enforcement and restrictive policies — affect the decision to become a citizen through naturalization in the US from 1900 to the present. My other line of research studies vigilante armed resistance groups in Mexico and the role of international migration in armed forms of collective political mobilization.
In the communities I study and work with, immigrant residents and their family members described becoming deeply afraid (and sometimes angry) at the ways they were being surveilled, policed and apprehended in the US interior for non-criminal offenses. I became curious if different sources of threat changed the meaning and resonance of citizenship for eligible green card holders. This curiosity led me to use mixed methods — interviews, statistics and archival materials — to make sense of how immigrant groups respond to threats over time and across US geography.
International migration plays a significant role in collective action in home country settings that we are only beginning to explore. Remittance resources, ideas, networks, and organizational capacity accrued in destination countries changes the potential for effectuating change back home including armed resistance, protests, insurgencies and rebellions. We have much work to do to understand these transnational forces.
Eleanor Ostrom broke so many barriers in economics and beyond. Her creativity, rigor and hands-on approach to solving problems inspired me a great deal. Peter Evans has also been a guiding light in my career.