DFW Immigration Research

Caroline B. Brettell, PhD
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas 7527

Contact Information:
Phone: 214-768-4254
Fax: 214-768-2906
Email: cbrettel@smu.edu

Caroline B. Brettell joined the SMU faculty in 1988 and holds the title of Dedman Family Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology. She served as Chair of the Department of Anthropology from 1994-2004. From 1989-1994 she served as Director of Women’s Studies at Southern Methodist University. She was President of the Faculty Senate in AY 2001-2002 and a Member of the SMU Board of Trustees. She has served on numerous Dedman College and University Committees and from 2006-2008 served as Dean ad interim of Dedman College. 
 

Brettell is an internationally-known specialist on immigration. She is the author of Men Who Migrate, Women Who Wait: Population and History in a Portuguese Parish (1986), We Have Already Cried Many Tears: The Stories of Three Portuguese Migrant Women (1982, 1995), and Anthropology and Migration: Essays on Transnationalism, Ethnicity and Identity (2003); co-author with Richard Brettell of Painters and Peasants in the 19th Century (1983); editor of When They Read What We Write: The Politics of Ethnography (1993), and Crossing Borders/Constructing Boundaries: Race, Ethnicity and Immigration (2006); co-editor of International Migration: The Female Experience (1986), Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009), Gender and Health: An International Perspective (1996), Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines (2000 and 2008), Citizenship, Immigration and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe and the United States (2008), and  Twenty-First Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburban America (2008).  She is also the author of numerous book chapters and articles.

Brettell has served as President of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe and of the Social Science History Association and was a member of the SNEM-3 NIH Study Section from 1999-2003.

PUBLICATIONS ON DFW IMMIGRATION RESEARCH

Brettell, Caroline B. and Faith Nibbs. 2010. "Immigrant Suburban Settlement and the "Threat" to Middle Class Status and Identity: The Case of Farmers Branch, Texas" International Migration (Forthcoming).

Brettell, Caroline B. and Faith Nibbs. 2009. “Lived Hybridity: Second-Generation Identity Construction Through College Festival” Identities: global Studies in Culture and Power 16: 678-699. The definitive version was published in Identities, Volume 16 Issue 6, November 2009.

“Immigrants as Netizens: Political Mobilization in Cyberspace” In Citizenship, Political Engagement, and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe and the United States, Deborah Reed-Danahay and Caroline B. Brettell, eds., Pp. 226-243. (Rutgers University Press, 2008) 

“ ‘Big D’: Incorporating New Immigrants in a Sunbelt Suburban Metropolis,” In Twenty-First Century Gateways:  Immigrant Incorporation in Suburbia,  Audrey Singer, Susan Hardwick and Caroline Brettell, eds., Pp. 53-86. (Brookings Institution Press, 2008) 

“Communities of Practice” for Civic and Political Engagement: A Comparison of Asian Indian and Vietnamese Immigrant Organizations in a Southwestern Metropolis” (with Deborah Reed-Danahay), In Civic Hopes and Political Realities: Immigrants, Community Organizations and Political Engagement, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan and Irene Bloemraad, eds., Pp. (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008).

“Immigrants in a Sunbelt Metropolis: The Transformation of an Urban Place and the Construction of Community” IN Immigration and Integration in Urban Communities: Renegotiating the City, Lisa M. Hanley, Blair A. Ruble and Allison M. Garland, eds., Pp. 143-176. (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). 

“Meet Me at the Chat Corner: The Cultural Embeddedness of Immigrant Entrepreneurs” In From Arrival to Incorporation: Migrants to the U.S. in a Global Era, Elliott Barkan, Hasia Diner, and Allen Kraut, eds, Pp. 121-142. (New York University Press, 2008). 

“Making Sense of Farmer’s Branch” Anthropology Newsletter, Volume 49 (May, 2008), p. 9-10 (with Faith Nibbs) PDF 221 KB

“Immigrant Women in Small Business: Biographies of Becoming Entrepreneurs” In Handbook of Research on Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs, Leo-Paul Dana, ed., Pp. 83-98. Cheltenham, UK and Vermont, USA: Edward Elgar, 2007. 

“21^st Century Gateways: Immigrants in Suburban America,” Poverty & Race 17 (4), 2008 (with Audrey Singer and Susan W. Hardwick), p. 1-2, 11-13, 15.

“Twenty-First Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburbia,” Migration Information Source, April 2008 (with Audrey Singer and Susan W. Hardwick) LINK LINK IN PDF

“The Agency of Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Biographies of the Self Employed in Ethnic and Occupational Niches of the Urban Labor Market,” (with Kristoffer Alstatt), Journal of Anthropological Research, 63 (2007): 383-397. PDF 285 KB

“Adjustment of Status, Remittances, and Return: Some Observations on 21^st Century Migration Processes,” City and Society 19 (2007): 47-59 PDF 243 KB

“Wrestling with 9/11: Immigrant Perceptions and Perceptions of Immigrants,” Migration Letters 3 (2006):17-34. PDF 158 KB 

“Political Belonging and Cultural Belonging: Immigration Status, Citizenship and Identity among Four Immigrant Populations in a Southwestern City,” American Behavioral Scientist, 50 (2006): 70-99. PDF 135 KB

“Voluntary Organizations, Social Capital, and the Social Incorporation of Asian Indian Immigrants in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex”, Anthropological Quarterly, 78 (2005): 821-851. PDF 1627 KB

“The Spatial, Social, and Political Incorporation of Asian Indian Immigrants in Dallas” Urban Anthropology 34 (2005): 247-280. PDF 201 KB

“Bringing the City Back In: Cities as Context for Immigrant Incorporation”, In American Arrivals: Anthropology Engages the New Immigration, Nancy Foner, ed., Pp. 163-195. Santa Fe: School of American Research, 2003. 

UNPUBLISHED CONFERENCE PAPERS

“The Rights and Responsibilities of Belonging: Immigrant Organizations, Urban Institutions, and Claims-Making in an Emerging Gateway City of Immigration”, “Migration and City Scale” Invited Workshop, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany, May, 2006 (revised and under review as: “Immigrant Organizations and Scalar Positioning: Asian Indians and the Dynamics of Place in a Southwestern Suburban Metropolis,” IN The Location of Migration: The City and the Scale, Nina Glick-Schiller and Ayse Caglar, eds. 

“The Gendered Process of Migrant Adjustment: A Comparison of Vietnamese, Asian Indian and Salvadoran Immigrants in a US Suburban Metropolis,” Metropolis Conference, Toronto, Ontario, October, 2005