Curriculum Vitae

Below is an abbreviated, digital-friendly version of my CV. For those interested in the full-length, pdf version, you can download that right here.

EDUCATION

University of Texas at Austin, 2003

Ph.D., Government

Brown University, Providence, RI, 1993

M.A., American Civilization

Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 1992

B.A., Politics, Cum Laude

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

2012–present, Associate Professor and Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights, CUNY Brooklyn College

2010–2012, Associate Professor of Political Science, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

2003–2010, Assistant Professor of Political Science, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Book

The Immigration Battle in American Courts, Cambridge University Press (Hardcover 2010, Paperback 2014)

  • The book examines the role of the Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals in immigration policy making in the United States, while also advancing scholarly understanding about the differing functions of the two-highest federal appellate courts over time. The major premise of the study is that because the Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals operate in decidedly different institutional settings, these two courts decide immigration cases in dissimilar ways and that the varying approaches have implications for the immigrant litigants.

Articles and Chapters

  • With Daniel J. Tichenor. “Race and Ethnicity and American Immigration Policy.” In The Oxford Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Politics in the United States (eds. David Leal, Taeku Lee, and Mark Sawyer). Oxford University Press. (January 2019).

  • “The Historical Amnesia of American Immigration Federalism.” Polity, 47 (2): 302–19 (July 2015).

  • “Lunatics, Idiots, Paupers, and Negro Seamen: Immigration Federalism and the Early American State.” Studies in American Political Development 28(2): 107–128 (October 2014).

  • With Margaret Williams. “Understanding Judicial Decision Making in Immigration at the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” The Justice System Journal Vol. 33 (1): 97–119 (2012).

  • “How the Internal Adjudicative Procedures of the Ninth Circuit Can Disadvantage Pro Se and Political Asylum Claimants.” 25 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 647–679 (Spring 2011).

  • “The Diversity Immigration Lottery—A Cycle of Unintended Consequences.” Journal of American Ethnic History, Vol 21(4): 3–29, Summer 2002.

CURRENT PROJECTS

  • Book-length project (Under contract with Oxford University Press): Federalism, Immigration, and Citizenship in the Antebellum U.S. (working title). This project seeks to answer the question: How did the existence of the federal system of government, that divides power between the national and subnational governments shaped migration and citizenship policy in the antebellum period?

  • National Science Foundation collaborative research grant with Co-Principle Investigator Karen Musalo of University of California Hastings College of the Law. Title: “How Do U.S. Immigration Courts Decide Gender-based Asylum Cases?” Grant #1556551/$79,497 to Brooklyn College; Grant #1556131/$185,989 to UC Hastings Law. (2016–2020) 


PAPERS PRESENTED

  • “Citizenship in the Revolutionary War Period”, Oxford Early American Republic Seminar (via Zoom), January 25, 2022.

  • “The Migration and Importation Clause's Scope--Defining the Freedom of Movement at the Founding", Washington Early American Republic Seminar Conference, (via Zoom), October 2020.

  •  “Migration Policy in the Colonial Period”, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Marriott Cambridge, Boston, MA, July 18-21, 2019.

    OTHER PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Expert Commentator. (April 2004 to January 2007) The Supreme Court is a four-part documentary produced by the PBS and its New York affiliate WNET that examines chronologically the history and development of the U.S. Supreme Court through the eyes of prominent justices and cases. Along with other academics and two Supreme Court justices, I appear as one of the four “core narrators” in on camera interviews in episodes 1, 2, and 3 and provided in-depth interviews on Chief Justice John Marshal and Justice Hugo Black, in addition to providing commentary on landmark decisions like Marbury v. Madison (1803) and Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857).

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Invited lecture. “Intersections of Slavery and U.S. Immigration Policy”, The Tenement Museum, New York, April 19, 2022. The presentation was to the educators and leadership of the museum.

  • Panelist. “The Roberts Court and Legitimacy”, University of Oregon, Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics (via Zoom), February 2, 2022.

  • Discussant. “Settler and Colonial Legacies on Immigration Restriction and U.S. Citizenship”, Organization of American Historians, Boston, MA: March 31-April 3, 2022.

  • Panelist. “Immigration in 2021 and Beyond,” Institute for Immigration Research, George Mason University (via Zoom), February 10, 2021.

  • Invited Constitution Day Lecture, “Trump’s Immigration Policies: Are They Constitutional?”, Bringham Young University, (via Zoom), September 17, 2020.

  • Invited lecture. “Who is an immigrant? Challenging the official story of US migration policy history” Russell Sage Foundation. New York, NY. February 12, 2020.

  • Book panel for Deborah Kang’s book INS On the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US Mexico Border, 1917-1954 MacMillan Center, Yale University, via Zoom, October 2020.

  • Panelist. “Making research relevant: Doing public facing scholarship,” Immigration Law Scholars and Teachers Workshop, Drexel University School of Law. Philadelphia, PA: May 24–26, 2018.

  • Invited guest lecturer. Constitution Day Speaker: “Are Trump’s Actions Constitutional? Immigration, Judicial Independence, and Democratic Institutions,” SUNY Fredonia, Sept. 18, 2017.

  • Invited guest lecturer. Constitution Day Speaker: “Does the Constitution Trump a Wall and Mass Deportation,” Clark University, Worcester, MA: September 14, 2016.

  • Invited guest instructor. “Immigration and Citizenship in Post War America,” National Humanities Center Forum on Immigration and Citizenship. Raleigh, NC: June 29–30, 2016. 

  • Invited presentation. “How slave policy dictated immigration policy,” SUNY Binghamton: April 22, 2016.

  • Invited Lecture. “Antebellum Immigration Federalism: A Division of Labor as Clear as Mud,” Constitutional Law Faculty Symposium at University of Texas School of Law: February 25, 2014.

  • Invited Lecture. “Debating Immigration Reform” Joint event of The Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society at New York University Law School: October 29, 2013.

  • Program Analyst. United States Commission on Immigration Reform, Researched and analyzed policy issues in support of the work of the blue ribbon, bipartisan, congressional commission. Washington, DC, 1994–1996.

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

  • National Science Foundation grant #1556551/$79,497 a 3-year collaborative project with Co-Principle Investigator Karen Musalo of University of California Hastings College of the Law: “How Do U.S. Immigration Courts Decide Gender-Based Asylum Claims?” February 2016–January 2020.

  • Ethyle Wolfe Institute for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, “Does the Constitution Guarantee Freedom from Government Tyranny and Despotism?" Fall 2014.

  • ENGAGE teaching award for fostering civic engagement through teaching, DePaul University, 2012.

  • Visiting pre-doctoral Fellowship, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California at San Diego (2002–2003).

  • Social Science Research Council, Committee on International Migration

    • Dissertation Fellowship (2002)

    • Minority Pre-Dissertation Fellowship (Summer 1997)


MEDIA 

SERVICE

Brooklyn College, Department of Political Science

  • Decolonize the political science curriculum (2022-)

  • Appointments Committee (2014-2018, 2021)

  • Undergraduate advisor (2016–2017)

  • Faculty Council political science department representative (2013–2016)

  • Events Committee, Chair (2013–2014)

  • Curriculum Committee (2012–2013)

  • Pre-Law Advisor (2012–2013)

  • American Institutions Job Search Committee (2012–2013)

  • Belle Zeller Visiting Professorship Search Committee (2012–2013)

Brooklyn College, School of Social Sciences and Humanities

  • Search Committee, Zicklin Chair (2017–2018)

  • Ad hoc Dean’s committee on undergraduate research (2014)

CUNY 

  • Reviewer for PSC-CUNY Economics and Political Science Review Board for faculty research grants (grant cycles 2013, 2014, 2022)

Service to the profession and broader community

  • Scholars Advisory Board, Tenement Museum: Immigration Museum NYC. Invited to the board to help the museum integrate the Black migration history into broader U.S. immigration history in redesigning its exhibits and tours. (2022-)

  • Elected to the Executive Board of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, an organized section of the Organization of American Historians. At IEHS, I serve on the webpage redesign committee. (2020-2022)

  • Editorial Board, Law and Politics Book Review, (2021-present)

  • Chair. Outstanding Dissertation Prize, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, (2022)

  • Appointed to the editorial board of the Justice System Journal. Spring 2019–present.

  • Co-Section Chair. American Political Science Association, Citizenship and Migration Section, (2016)

  • Elected to 3-year term on Executive Council of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association (2013–2015)

  • Section Chair, Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence, American Political Science Association, 2014 annual conference program committee (2013–2014)

  • Section Chair, Law and Jurisprudence, Midwest Political Science Association, 2011.

  • Congressional staff briefing. “An Assessment of the Effect of Caseload Pressures on the U.S. Courts of Appeals” United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington, DC: Sept. 1, 2010. (A research presentation to the senior legislative counsels to the Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who draft immigration and court reform legislation.)

  • Advisory Panel/Grant reviewer. National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science Division. 2010.

  • External Reviewer for Refereed Journals. Justice System Journal, Journal of Law and Policy ; Politics, Groups, Identities; Polity’ Studies in American Political Development, Journal of Law and Courts, Justice System Journal, American Journal of Political Science, International Migration Review, Sociological Forum, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, American Politics Review.

  • External Grant Reviewer. U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Science and Technology Directorate, (2007) White Paper Review for Border Studies Center Project.