Edwin Ackerman

Degree

Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 2016

Specialties

Political sociology, comparative-historical sociology, Latin-American studies, social theory

Courses

SOC 300 Global Capitalism

SOC 335 Political Sociology

SOC 611 Sociological Theory

SOC 800 Race in Comparative Perspective

Biography

Dr. Edwin Ackerman uses comparative-historical methods to understand how political identities form and become operative. He has studied this process in two contexts: political party formation in Latin America, and the historical trajectory of debates over ‘illegal’ immigration from the global South to the U.S. His works has been published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, the Journal of Language and Politics, and Contexts, and has been featured in National Public Radio (NPR), among other media outlets_._ He is currently working on a book manuscript that focuses on how mass political parties form and consolidate, developing a comparison between post-revolutionary Mexico and Bolivia. Edwin is a former MFP Fellow and Ford Fellow. He received his PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley.

Publications

Ackerman, Edwin. 2014.“‘What part of illegal don’t you understand?:’ Bureaucracy and Civil Society in the Shaping of the Immigration Debate in the U.S.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 37, Issue 2.

Ackerman, Edwin. 2014. “The ‘Illegal Alien’ As a Category of Analysis: A Methodological Intervention.” Journal of Language and Politics, Issue 13:3.

Ackerman, Edwin. 2013. “The Rise of the ‘Illegal Alien.’” Contexts, Vol. 12, Issue 3.

Ackerman, Edwin. 2012. “A Mexican Spring?” Jacobin, December 12, 2012.

Ackerman, Edwin. 2011. “NAFTA and Gatekeeper: A Theoretical Assessment Of Border- Enforcement In The Era Of The Neoliberal State. ” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Vol. 55.

Recent Invited Lectures

“Two Primitive Accumulations and Party Formation in Mexico and Bolivia,” Development and Governance Seminar at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, February 15th, 2017.

“‘What Part of Illegal Don’t You Understand?’ : Tracing the Debate Over Immigration.” Syracuse University Project Advance, Syracuse University, December 1st, 2016.

“The Emergence of the PRI: Land, Civil Society, and Party Formation in Post-revolutionary Mexico.” Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, October 14, 2015