Sophia Balakian

Sophia Balakian is a sociocultural anthropologist and a scholar of forced migration. 

Her book, Unsettled Families: Refugees, Humanitarianism & the Politics of Kinship,” (Stanford University Press, 2025), examines the post-9/11 securitization of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, and the ways in which people from Somalia and DR Congo navigate bureaucratic systems and security technologies that structure humanitarian programs today. The book centers the role of kinship and family in refugee resettlement programs, and how policy definitions intersect with the ways in which people rebuild families and communities in the aftermath of displacement. The book is based on long-term ethnographic research between Nairobi, Kenya and Columbus, Ohio.    

Balakian’s new research project investigates the ways in which people originally from east Africa navigate U.S. policies and practices around caregiving, especially childcare. How do people re-imagine what constitutes good care in new social and economic environments? 

Balakian's research has been funded by the Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies, The Social Science Research Council, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, among other institutions. From 2019-2020, and 2022-2023, she was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. She has published in American Ethnologist, The Journal of Refugee Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Anthropologica, African Studies Review, and in the edited volume, Global Perspectives on the United States.

Selected Publications

• Balakian, S. 2025. Unsettled Families: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Balakian, S. 2025. "'In the Hands of the UN': Remembering Gatumba and Resisting Encampment in Kenya." Journal of Refugee Studies. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feaf033
• Balakian, S. 2025. "Working on Resettlement: Refugees in Kenya and Everyday Practices in Pursuit of Migration Futures." Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2474623
• Balakian, S. 2025. "The Fraudulent Family: US Refugee Admissions, Moral Economies of Kinship, and DNA Testing in Africa." American Ethnologist
• Balakian, S. 2023 "Of Aunts & Mothers: Refugee Resettlement, the Nuclear Family, and Caring for 'Other' Children in Kenya." Ethnic and Racial Studies 46(2):213-232. 
• Balakian, S. 2020 “Navigating Patchwork Governance: Somalis in Kenya, National Security, and Refugee Resettlement.” African Studies Review 63(1):43-64.
• Balakian, S. and V. Dominguez. 2019 “The Promise and The Lost City of Z: Diasporas, Cinematic Imperialism, and Commercial Films.” Anthropologica 61(1):150-61.
• Balakian, S. 2016 “‘Money Is Your Government’: Refugees, Mobility, and Unstable Documents in Kenya’s Operation Usalama Watch.” African Studies Review 59(2):87-111. 

Grants and Fellowships 

• 2022-23 Academy Scholar, Harvard Academy for International & Area Studies
• 2019-20 Academy Scholar, Harvard Academy for International & Area Studies
• 2016 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies
• 2016  Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (declined), Woodrow Wilson Foundation
• 2013 Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, The Wenner-Gren Foundation
• 2013  International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council

Education

• PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Anthropology
• BA, Cornell University, Anthropology, summa cum laude

In the Media 

• 2020 “Refugee Families in the Era of Global Securitization.” Interview with Chris Gratien. Ottoman History Podcast. July 29.  https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/07/family-reunification.html
• 2017 “What Does Refugee Vetting Look Like on the Ground?” Expert Viewpoints. March 21. https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/476962
• 2016 “Risk, Refugees, and the Politics of Blame: the U.S. After the Paris Attacks.” Unstratified. January 25. https://unstratifiedarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/risk-refugees-and-the-politics-of-blame-the-us-after-the-paris-attacks/