About the Department

Alison Mountz is the 2009-2010 William Lyon Mackenzie King Research Fellow with the Canada Program at WCFIA. She is visiting from Syracuse University where she is Associate Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her research in political geography examines transnational migration and border governance and has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Canadian Embassy. Her new book, Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border (University of Minnesota Press), explores encounters between authorities and undocumented migrants. Mountz was recently awarded a five year, $428,271 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation titled "Geographies of Sovereignty: Global Migration, Legality, and the Island Index." The grant will support study of island detention centers off the shores of North America, Europe, and Australia. Mountz has garnered awards for her undergraduate and graduate teaching and will teach courses on the Canada-US border and political geography this year.