Mathew Coleman

Dr. Coleman (Ph.D. UCLA, 2005) is currently a Fellow at OSU's Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies and Secretary-Treasurer for the Association of American Geographer's Political Geography Specialty Group. As a political geographer, Coleman is interested in how the contingencies and specificities of territory, place, and space shape what we can say about the exercise of state power. His work examines the persistence of states in the world economy, as well as the ongoing importance of statecraft to world geopolitics. His current research involves a thorough investigation of undocumented migration. Topics include: the devolution of immigration policing to non-federal law enforcement agencies; secure Communities and 287(g) in the US South; racial profiling; the merger of criminal law enforcement and civil immigration enforcement; (dis)continuities of US immigration enforcement pre- and post- 9/11; detention and deportation practice in the US since the Chinese Exclusion Acts; the politics of immigration law reform; operation Global Reach, and US-Mexico and US-Canada relations regarding immigration enforcement.