Biography

I am coming to the European University Institute from New York University's interdisciplinary Institute for Law & Society.
I will complete my dissertation which is titled: Persistently Illiberal? Law and Deportable Labor in American Political Development in August 2012.
My dissertation examines the intersection of immigration and employment laws in a historical context, focusing upon the case of foreign temporary workers across time and sectors (1942 to today).
More specifically, I look at law's Janus face in the US labour market; namely, the extent to which and how immigration law's disciplinary force in production is mitigated by migrant workplace protections. This is an area of administrative law; thus, in examining hundreds of cases of foreign temporary employment law, I bring to light an heretofore understudied area of state practice and rights-claiming. I also track changes in state practice and law over time, specifically those produced as a past interventionist state (1942-1964) has pulled back from managing foreign temporary workplace relations directly and rolled out a more minimalist rights-based framework across sectors (1964-present).
Moving forward from my dissertation, my post-doctoral project examines the intersection of immigration & employment law in comparative/global historical contexts. More specifically, at the European University Institute, I will be mapping past and present global temporary labour regimes and examining the role of foreign temporary workplace laws in three contemporary migrant-receiving countries: the US, France, and the United Arab Emirates.
More broadly, my research interests include labour control and regulation, employment law, administrative law, legal history, comparative state formation, law & globalization, and post-colonial theory.