Welcome! I am a writer and associate professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center, and a current Carnegie Fellow (2025-2027). Click here for how pronounce my name.

My research and writing centers the lives of people who migrate across borders and the unequal and often violent institutions they face. My award-winning book Refuge takes readers into the lives of displaced Syrians who sought refuge in wealthy countries of the Global North. I show these destination countries are not saviors; they can deny newcomers’ potential by failing to recognize their abilities and invest in the tools they need to prosper.

I am currently working on my second book, The Cost of Borders, where I show that borders exist, not as legal markers of sovereign territory as they’re imagined, but as expenditures that are always costly and often deadly. The book draws on over a decade of interviews with people whose lives are shaped by bordering — in Tijuana and San Diego, in Gaza and the West Bank, and in the Greek isles that form the boundary of the European Union.