About

Gilberto Rosas is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. He holds additional affiliations as Chair of Latina/Latino Studies, Professor of Latina/Latino Studies, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. He is also an affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. His research focuses on issues related to borders, immigration, and racial capitalism, with notable contributions including his publications on the US-Mexico border, white nationalism, and the criminalization of states. Rosas has authored and edited several books, such as 'Barrio Libre: Criminalizing States and Delinquent Refusals of the New Frontier' and 'Unsettling: The El Paso Massacre, Resurgent White Nationalism, and the US-Mexico Border.' His work is recognized for its critical analysis of border politics, asylum, and the social dynamics surrounding immigration and racialization.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Criminology
• Geography
• Law
• Virology
• Social psychology
• Socioeconomics
• Economics
• Gender studies
• Demographic economics
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• Environmental health
• Political economy

Selected publications

• “We Don’t Have That Freedom”:

  Berghahn Books · 2025-11-07

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• CHAPTER 8 “We Don’t Have That Freedom”

  Berghahn Books · 2025-12-11

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• Real-World Effectiveness and Safety of Baricitinib in Patients with Atopic Dermatitis

  Clinical Drug Investigation · 2023-12-19 · 4 citations

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• Introduction:

  2023-09-18

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• 3. Necro-Subjection: On Borders, Asylum, and Making Dead to Let Live

  2023-10-13 · 1 citations

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• Unsettling

  Johns Hopkins University Press eBooks · 2023-01-01 · 5 citations

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• Necro-Subjection:

  2023-09-18

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• Necro-Subjection: On Borders, Asylum, and Making Dead to Let Live

  2023-09-01 · 2 citations

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  Gilberto Rosas draws on the experiences of those who lack the privilege of citizenship in this anti-immigrant age, as they make themselves dead in order to live and rely on experts in asylum and related immigration proceedings to cast their homelands as hopeless, full of despair, and dominated by monstrous and imminently racialized and gendered oppression and violence.

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• Introduction: On Theories from the Ends

  2023-10-13

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• Introduction: On Theories from the Ends

  2023-09-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  As with all borders, the international boundary between the United States and Mexico troubles distinctions between strangers and enemies, between the criminal and the law-abiding, between immigrant and citizen. The US-Mexico border specifically, and borders generally, have grown in importance as border controls and undocumented border crossings have intensified across the globe. The Border Reader curates some of the foundational scholarship on the region, its daily life, and its tensions. From linguistic studies of the criminal argot of smugglers, to insistences on the region’s normalcy, to smug confirmations of US superiority, to romanticized folklores of resistance in corridos and related forms, to studies on health and immigration policy, questions about who, what, and which language—English, Spanish, Yoeme, or even Q’anjob’al—represent the border remain pertinent. The Border Reader offers a vibrant alternative canon for scholars and students in a range of fields including anthropology, history, English, Spanish, postcolonial, and ethnic studies.

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Frequent coauthors

• Irenee R. Beattie

  University of California, Merced

  144 shared

• Joane Nagel

  California State University, Channel Islands

  144 shared

• Megan Thiele

  San Jose State University

  144 shared

• Christina Lux

  California State University, Long Beach

  144 shared

• Vilna Treitler

  University of Oregon

  144 shared

• Helen Marrow

  California State University, Channel Islands

  144 shared

• Zulema Valdez

  University of California, Merced

  144 shared

• David Torres-Rouff

  California State University, Channel Islands

  144 shared