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Cawo Abdi

Protrait: Cawo Abdi

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. 2006 University of Sussex
Room 1146 Social Sciences
Phone: 612-624-3714
Email: cabdi@umn.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Interest Areas

Migration; Gender, Race and Class; Family; Islam; Development Studies; Human Rights; Globalization; Africa; Middle East.

Current Research

Book Manuscript: “Journeys of Hope: Somali Experiences in South Africa, America and the United Arab Emirates.”

Journeys of Hope is a comparative study investigating the migration experiences of Somalis in South Africa, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. Focus on an African Muslim migrant group dispersed around the globe provides an opportunity to pose common migration questions, but in a comparative broader scale. In addition to advancing the scant knowledge about the divergent comparative model, this study’s focus of a Western settlement as well as non-western migrant expands and complicates our understanding of diverse immigration policies as well as the resulting migrant experiences.

Selected Publications

“Threatened Identities and Gendered Opportunities: Somali Migration to America.” Forthcoming. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

“Muslim-American Youth and Homeland Politics: Competing Narratives on the War on Terror.” 2011. In Looming Shadows: Migration and Integration at a time of Upheaval. European and American Perspectives. Vedran Dzihic/Thomas Schmidinger (eds.), Center for Transatlantic Relations: John Hopkins University pp. 273-289.

“Moving Beyond ‘Xenophobia’: Structural Violence, Conflict and Encounters with the ‘Other’ Africans.” 2011. Development Southern Africa, 28(5): 691-704.

“A Gendered Perspective on the Impact of Conflict in the Horn of Africa.” 2011. Nordic Africa Institute, Policy Note 3.

“Convergence of Civil War and the Religious Right: Re-Imagining Somali Women.” 2007. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 33(1):183-207.