Fidan Elcioglu

Emine Fidan Elcioglu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. She received a B.A. in economics and history from the University of Chicago in 2006 and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2016. She currently teaches courses on critical migration studies, race, and qualitative research methods.

Professor Elcioglu’s research focuses on immigration political struggles as a way to explore the relationship between dominant and dominated groups; as well as the relationship between state and civil society under conditions of growing inequality. Most recently, she is the author of Divided by the Wall: Progressive and Conservative Immigration Politics at the U.S.-Mexico BorderOpens an external site in a new window (2020, University of California Press). Based on 20 months of immersive research, Divided by the Wall ethnographically mines the meanings of the contentious immigration debate for activists on opposite sides of the political spectrum. In particular, her book combines the insights of political sociology and race studies to shed light on why and how ordinary Americans collectively mobilize to change immigration and border policy--even when they don't necessarily believe that their actions will make a difference. 

Professor Elcioglu’s current research builds on her ongoing interest in how citizens make sense of non-citizenship, and what these understandings reveal about the societies they inhabit. Supported by the University of Toronto’s School of Cities Urban Challenges GrantOpens an external site in a new window (2023-24), her new project explores the voting behavior and political opinions of foreign-born Canadians. How do former noncitizens make sense of and use their subsequent privileges when they become citizens? Why are more and more immigrants increasingly supporting parties left and right of the Liberal Party?