I am an interdisciplinary and experiential political scientist. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1996), and since 2010 have taught at the University of Maryland where I am currently  Director of MLAW Programs for the College of Behavioral and Social Science, which includes the College Park Scholars Program in Justice and Legal Thought and an interdisciplinary minor in Law and Society.  In addition, I am Research Associate Professor in Government and Politics as well as lecturer at law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, where I teach immigration law.

I teach courses on law and society, immigration politics and immigration law, and a graduate seminar on American political thought.  Here is my immigration syllabus and info on teaching effectiveness.

I enjoy blogging (read recent interview) and writing  op/eds, and consider myself a political junkie.

I am the author of Immigration and American Democracy: Subverting the Rule of Law, which is about executive power and the privatization of immigration control. See also my law review article about Blackwater and immigration control.

At the moment my research dance card is quite full. I am writing a textbook on political ideologies for Pearson Press, and c0-editing a book on immigration detention for Springer Press.

I am also conducting research for a “sequel” book on immigration control.  The book project focuses on risk technology and spaces for plenary powers in immigration enforcement.

Last fall, I visited Coimbra, Portugal for an immigration control conference. The conference highlight released of the book, Social Control and Justice: Crimmigration in the Age of Fear.  Chapter 3, my chapter, is on risk and alternatives to immigration detention.

I have been writing about immigration, political asylum, human rights and the border, self-governance, community-based media, and non-profits for over fifteen years.  I come to these topics from a politically progressive viewpoint and with an intellectual curiosity about contested public spaces, law, privatization, and sovereignty.

Over the years, my research has been eclectic but always comes back to the contested space in liberal society that impedes the every day activities of marginalized people.  

In 2000-2001, I examined the Hungarian Roma (a.k.a. Gypsy) minority rights and self governance. My research was housed at the Budapest University Economic (BUES) and at the NGO Partners Hungary.  Before that I conducted research at the US-Mexican Border with immigrant victims of human rights abuses and political asylum applicants.  

Other related research interests have included Bono and the privatization of the First Amendment and the commercialization of public life.

Some of the photos you see on this site are of my beautiful family, wife Steph, and kids Olivia and Julian.