About Emily

I am a sociologist, children’s author, and Andean musician whose work moves between the classroom, the page, and the stage in service of storytelling that makes the world better.

As a professor of sociology, my research focuses on migration, immigration enforcement, and the children and families navigating it. My scholarship examines the rhetoric and lived reality of enforcement operations, and how communities respond and advocate in the face of them. I am the author of Unaccompanied: The Plight of Immigrant Youth at the Border (NYU Press) and co-editor of Kids in Cage: Surviving and Resisting Child Migrant Detention (University of Arizona Press).

I am also a children’s author, currently working on books that connect children to the natural world and to cultural heritage. My works in progress include City of Trees, about the urban treescape, Oh No, Aloe!, about houseplant care, and a middle grade adventure series set in Ecuador.

Sometimes stories are best shared through song. As the flutist in Inti Illinois, an Andean music ensemble, I tell musical stories about heritage across borders and the resilience of indigenous culture.