Cawo Abdi

Contact Me

cabdi@umn.edu
612-624-3714

Sociology .
267 19th Ave S
Ste 1033

Affiliations

• Sociology
• Global Studies, Institute for

Educational Background & Specialties

Educational Background

• PhD: Sociology, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, 2006.
• MA: University of Guelph, Canada, 2002.
• BSocSc: Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada, 1995.

Curriculum Vitae

Specialties

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

Courses Taught

• Soc 1001 - Introduction to Sociology
• Soc 1011V : Honors: Introduction to Sociology
• Soc 3505 - Transnational Migration
• Soc 3681 - Gender and Family in the Islamic World
• Soc 8390 - Topics: Comparing Migrations
• Soc 8390 - Topics: Global Migrations

Research & Professional Activities

Research

• One of my new projects examines the educational attainment and school choices of new migrants. For children of migrant parents, the American education system can be their ladder to social mobility and the realization of their American dream, or it can leave them behind as a part of millions of Americans whose lives remain precarious. This study investigates the increasing role ethnocentric charter schools are playing in new refugee and migrant groups’ education in Minnesota and how this shapes their long-term settlement and integration in the United States.

Publications

• ”Protracted Limbo? Refugees and the Statelessness in the Age of Terrorism,” with Erika Busse. Forthcoming 2018. In The Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies. Edited by Steven J. Gold and Stephanie J. Nawyn. UK: Routledge.
• "Refugees and Citizens on the Margins: Sufferings Recognized, Sufferings Denied.” 2017. Pp. 217-232 in Alleviating World Suffering: The Challenge of Negative Quality of Life. Edited by Ronald E. Anderson. NY: Springer.
• "Disclaimed or Reclaimed? Muslim Refugee Youth and Belonging in the Age of Hyperbolisation." 2015. Journal of Intercultural Studies 36(5):564-578.
• Elusive Jannah: The Somali Diaspora and a Borderless Muslim Identity. 2015. MN: University of Minnesota Press.
• "Threatened Identities and Gendered Opportunities: Somali Migration to America." 2014. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 39(21):459-483.
• "Muslim-American Youth and Homeland Politics: Competing Narratives on the War on Terror.” 2011. Pp 273-289 in Looming Shadows: Migration and Integration at a Time of Upheaval. European and American Perspectives. Edited by Vedran Dzihic and Thomas Schmidinger. Washington, D.C.: Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS.
• "Moving Beyond ‘Xenophobia’: Structural Violence, Conflict and Encounters with the ‘Other’ Africans," 2011. Development Southern Africa 28(5):691-704.
• "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.

Awards

• Fulbright Research Fellowship to South Africa, 2012 - 2013