Nancy Hiemstra, PhD
Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stony
Brook University
Areas of Expertise: Global migration, immigration enforcement practices, detention and deportation, homeland security, borders, gender, race, Latin America, feminist epistemology and methodologies
Nancy Hiemstra is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stony
Brook University in Long Island, New York. A political geographer, her research examines the consequences of U.S. immigration enforcement policies within, at, and beyond U.S. borders, with particular attention to detention, deportation, and immigration policing practices throughout the Americas. Hiemstra also studies the relationship between immigration, race, and national identity; deterrence and security logics behind punitive policies; and anti-immigrant narratives. She is co-author, with Deirdre Conlon, of Immigration Detention Inc: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants (2025), and author of Detain and Deport: The Chaotic U.S. Immigration Enforcement Regime (2019). Her work has appeared widely in geography, migration studies, and interdisciplinary social science journals, as well as public-facing venues.
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