NCID-1744
Katherine Jensen
Assistant Professor in Sociology and International Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Education/Degree:
1 Sociology (The University of Texas at Austin)
About
Katherine Jensen is a sociologist interested in the political and cultural production of racial domination and inequality. As a political ethnographer, she researches race/racism, the state, and forced migration in the Americas, with a focus on Brazil. She earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2018, with a specialization in African and African diaspora studies. Before joining the University of Wisconsin, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Inter-American Policy & Research at Tulane University.
Current Work
In 2013, Brazil instituted an open-door policy for Syrian refugees. Within the year, Syrians went from a nonexistent refugee community in Brazil to its largest. Why has Brazil — in contrast to much of the international community — offered asylum to any Syrian who will come? To decipher this international exception, Dr. Jensen's book project uncovers how race matters in asylum policy. Tracing the asylum process from arrival to after recognition for claimants from over 45 countries, it details how race operates through asylum, tracing the production of racial meanings and inequalities as state and civil society actors work to determine who is worthy of safe haven.
Research Area Keyword(s)
ethnography, forced migration, Latin America, race, the state