The Department of Sociology is happy to welcome our newest Assistant Professor, Dr. Felicia Arriaga. Arriaga is originally from Hendersonville, North Carolina and she attended Duke University's Talent Identification Program (TIP) that met here at Appalachian State from 2002-2006. She went on to complete her undergraduate, Masters, and PhD at Duke University. Arriaga recently defended her dissertation in March titled, The Browning of Threat: The “Unintended” Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement in a New Destination Community, which illuminates how local law enforcement partners with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in NC and in the South. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of race and ethnicity, immigration, and "crimmigration" (criminalization of immigration policy and procedure). Arriaga considers herself a public sociologist and hopes that her scholarship and community work will contribute to more fruitful discussions around crimmigration practices and policies. She is especially interested in how these policies and procedures related to issues of criminal justice accountability, transparency, and reform.
Dr. Felicia Arriaga
