My primary research interests are in the areas of migration and the politics of difference, the cultural politics of memory and mourning, and the governance of borders. I study how migratory experiences shape racialized identities in Western Europe, how nations commemorate and come to terms with political violence, and contemporary struggles over militarized borders in the United States and the European Union. 

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Photo: An Islamic funeral in Berlin

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My first book manuscript, Dying Abroad: The Political Afterlives of Migration in Europe (under review), is an ethnographic study of how minoritized communities navigate death and dying in countries where they face systematic barriers to political inclusion. Building on multi-sited fieldwork in Berlin and Istanbul, it illustrates how the seemingly quotidian practices surrounding the burial of ethnic, racial, and religious minorities are structured by deeper political questions about the meaning of citizenship and belonging in an increasingly transnational world. 

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A second strand of my research focuses on the cultural politics of mourning and memory. I am especially interested in how nations commemorate and come to terms with political violence and how public grief rituals shape collective identities. I have explored these questions in different contexts including the Boston Marathon bombing (right), the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, and the failed 2016 military coup attempt in Turkey. Please see my publications page for links to my writing. 

My current research focuses on the governance of borders in Europe and the United States. I am particularly interested in social movements contesting border deaths and militarized borders.    ​

Photo: Protestors demonstrating against the burial of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Boston