Jeremy Slack

Jeremy Slack is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas, El Paso. He received his PhD in Geography from the University of Arizona in 2015. His research is focused on deportation and the problems forced removal creates for individuals and their families, the connections to place that are severed and how it has intersected with drug related violence on the border. His research interests include state theory, illegal and illicit activity, the U.S. Mexico Border, drug trafficking, violence, participatory/activist oriented research methodology and public scholarship.

Currently, he runs the Immigration and Border Communities – Research Experience for Undergraduates, a National Science Foundation program, to teach research methods in the social sciences by collaborating with community organizations in the Paso del Norte Regions. Students engage with a variety of topics related to immigration and border enforcement and its impact on the region, producing data relevant to local efforts by advocates.

Dr. Slack’s work has been funded by the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation and the National Science Foundation among others. He has published widely in Geography, Anthropology and Sociology in journals such as Area, Antipode, Population Studies, International Migration Review, Human Organization and the Journal of Migration and Human Security among others. He edited, In the Shadow of the Wall: Violence and Migration on the U.S. Mexico Border, which was released in 2018 by the University of Arizona Press. His second book, Deported to Death: How Drug Violence is Changing Migration on the U.S. Mexico Border, from the University of California Press, explores the danger of mass removal from the United States which has placed millions in danger as they must navigate complex and dangerous regions upon deportation.