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.

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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

  • “The Reconstruction Amendments’ Effects on Citizenship and Migration.” Journal of American Constitutional History, 3(1): 111-138 (February 2025).

  • “With Fear, Favor, and Flawed Analysis: Decision-Making in the US Immigration Courts.” Boston College Law Review, 65(8): 2743-2800 (Fall 2024).

  • “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).

  • “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).

CURRENT PROJECTS

  • The book-length Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship is forthcoming with Oxford University Press on March 10, 2026. It answers the question: Where is the dividing line between national and local/state authority in migration and citizenship law and policy?

  • 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

  • “Internal Borders and the Right to Remain in the 19th Century US”, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic annual conference, Providence, RI, July 17-20, 2025.

  • “Reconstruction and Reevaluating American Citizenship”, Conference: The Second Founding?, Tulane School of Law/Richards Civil War Center/Journal of Supreme Court History, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 15-16, 2024.

  •   “Republican Ideology and the Freedom of Movement and Remain”, The Constitutional Schmooze, University of Maryland Francis Carey School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland, March 10-11, 2023.

    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

  • Conference for Alison LaCroix’s The Interbellum Constitution: Union, Commerce, and Slavery in the Age of Federalisms, University of Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL. (November 21, 2025)

  • Roundtable participant. “Migration and Citizenship during the Revolutionary War,” Ten Things to Know About the American Revolution, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic conference, Providence, RI, July 17-20, 2025.

  • Invited lecture. Constitution Day lecture: “Migration Federalism in the 19th Century US”, University of Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas, NV. September 18, 2023.

  • Invited Lecture.  “Stacking the Deck: Gender-Based Asylum and Immigration Judges”, University of Nevada, Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law, Las Vegas, NV. September 18, 2023.

  • Invited Lecture. “Antebellum Migration and Citizenship,” Center for Race, Citizenship, Equality Symposium, University of California Law, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, January 19, 2023.

  • Invited Lecture. Constitution Day Lecture, “Challenging the Official Story of U.S. Immigration Policy,” Tufts University, Medford, MA, September 13, 2022.

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.


    MEDIA 

SERVICE

Brooklyn College, Department of Political Science

•Curriculum Committee (2012-2013, 2023-)

  • Decolonize the political science curriculum (2022-)

  • Appointments Committee (2014-2018, 2021)

  • Undergraduate advisor (2016–2017, 2023-2024)

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

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, 2023)

Service to the profession and broader community

  • “Professional Learning Day for K-12 Teachers on immigration and slavery” NYC Tenement Museum/National Park Services, Federal Hall NYC, June 6, 2024.

  • Trained report intake/investigator. Status of Professional Environment Committee, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, (2021-2023) IEHS has committed to having two trained committee members at conferences and events (including online) to enforce their Code of Conduct.

  • Roundtable participant. “Navigating the Academy as a Woman of Color”, annual conference of the Midwestern Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL.

  • 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. (2020-2022)

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

  • Chair. Outstanding Dissertation Prize, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, (2021, 2022)

  • 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. Journal of American Constitutional History, William and Mary Quarterly, Journal of American History, 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.