Core Faculty

Ph.D. 2007, New York University, Anthropology
Certificate Program 2005, New York University, Culture and Media
M.A. 2001, University of Copenhagen, Anthropology
B.A. 1998, University of Copenhagen, Anthropology

Research Interests

Migration and (Im)mobilities, Borders, Citizenship, Visual Anthropology, Media Practices, Ritual and Performance, Affect Theory, Peru, Ecuador, Latin America, Latinx Studies

Biographical Information

Professor Ulla D. Berg is an Associate Professor at the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies and the Department of Anthropology and former Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Rutgers (2015-2021). As a sociocultural and visual anthropologist specializing in Latin America and in Latino communities in the U.S., Prof. Berg's research focuses on historical and contemporary processes and experiences of migration and mobility within Latin America and between this region and the United States. Her first book, Mobile Selves: Race, Migration, and Belonging in Peru and the U.S., examined how transnational communicative practices and forms of exchange produce new forms of kinship and sociality across multiple borders among racialized global labor migrants. She has also edited several edited volumes including El Quinto Suyo: Transnacionalidad y Formaciones Diaspóricas en la Migración Peruana (with Karsten Paerregaard) Transnational Citizenship Across the Americas (with Robyn Rodriguez) and Migración (with Irére Ceja and Soledad Alvarez Velasco).

Berg is currently working on three book projects: The first is a single-authored book on immigrant detention and deportation of South Americans from the U.S. The second is an edited volume (with Aldo Lauria Santiago) titled Latina/o New Jersey: Histories, Communities, Politics (forthcoming 2024). The third is a social history of the Elizabeth Detention Center and of immigration detention in New Jersey and the United States (with Carolina Sanchez Boe). Prof. Berg is an active member of several professional organizations. She was the Program Co-Chair for the LASA Congress 2023 in Vancouver and she currently co-convenes EASA’s Anthropology of Confinement Network.

Undergraduate Courses Regularly Taught

Publications

Books

	2015. Mobile Selves: Race, Migration, and Belonging in Peru and the U.S. New York University Press.
	2013.Transnational Citzenship Across the Americas. Eds. Ulla D. Berg and Robyn Rodriguez. London and New York: Routledge
	2005. El Quinto Suyo: Transnacionalidad y Formaciones Diasporicas en la Migración Peruana [The Fifth Region: Transnationality and Diasporic Formations in Peruvian Migration]. Eds. Ulla Berg and Karsten Paerregaard. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.

Recent Articles

• 2022. Berg, Ulla D., Sarah Tosh, and K. Sebastian León. Remote Ethnography in Carceral Settings: Local Configurations of Migrant Detention during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Ethnography, online first: https://doi.org/10.1177/14661381211072414.
• 2022. Berg, Ulla D. and Gioconda Herrera. Transnational Families and Return in the Age of
  Deportation: The Case of Indigenous Ecuadorian Migrants. Global Networks, Vol 22(1):36-50 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/glob.12323.
• 2021. Tosh, Sarah R., Ulla D. Berg, and K. Sebastian León. 2021. Migrant Detention and COVID-19: Pandemic Responses in Four New Jersey Detention Centers. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 9(1): 44-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/23315024211003855
• 2019. Berg, Ulla D. Documenting Latinx Lives: Visual Anthropology and Latinx Studies. Latino Studies 17(1):108-117. DOI 10.1057/s41276-018-00170-y
• 2015 “Racializing Affect: A Theoretical Proposition.” Co-authored with Ana Ramos-Zayas. Current Anthropology, Vol. 56, No. 5 (October 2015)

Book Chapters

• 2024. Berg, Ulla D. El poder de los milagros: migración transnacional y religiosidad entre los peruanos en Nueva York. In Alejandro Málaga (ed): Qué soles se acercaban al pasado: Homenaje a Luis Millones. Lima: Biblioteca National del Perú / Universidad Cesar Vallejo.
• 2023. Berg, Ulla D. COVID-19 and Immobility Across the Americas: A Hemispheric Affective Public. In M. Lünenborg and B. Röttger-Rössler (eds). Affective Publics: Places, Network, Media. London and New York: Routledge.
• 2023. Berg, Ulla D. COVID-19 and Spaces of Confinements. In T. Politano (eds.): The Year That Changed Everything: 2020 at Rutgers and Beyond. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• 2023. Herrera, Gioconda and Ulla D. Berg, Vulnerability and (Im)mobilities: US Deportation and Post-deportation Lives among Ecuadorian Transnational Families. In D. Bryceson, J. Cienfuegos and R. Brandhorst (eds): Handbook of Transnational Families Around the World: Entangled Inequalities, Gender Roles, and New Actors on the Global Scale, pp. 299-311. Springer, Sociology and Social Research Series [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-15278-8_19]
• 2022. Berg, Ulla D. and Lucía Pérez-Martínez. The Legality of (Im)mobility: Migration, Coyoterismo and Indigenous Justice in Southern Ecuador. In Herrera G. and C. Gómez (eds): Migration in South America, pp. 145-166. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11061-0_7
• 2021. Berg, Ulla D. The Afterlife of U.S. Disciplining Institutions: Transnational Structures of (Im)mobility among Peruvian Deportees. In Rúa and Ramos-Zayas (eds): Critical Dialogues in Latinx Studies, 392-403. New York and London: New York University Press.

Films

• Domingo de Ramos. Documentary-in-progress on the Peruvian poet Domingo de Ramos (director and producer)
• Waiting for Miracles (2003). Documentary that follows a Peruvian Catholic brotherhood as it prepares for its yearly procession honoring the Lord of Miracles in NYC. This film explores the power of faith in the lives of immigrants in New York City (Director, Producer, and editor. NYU, Culture and Media)

Online Multimedia Projects

• 2020. Covid-19 y (In)movilidad en las Américas / Covid-19 and (Im)mobility in the Americas. A collective online archive about the impact of the global pandemic on mobile populations and migratory situations across the Americas: https://www.inmovilidadamericas.org/
• 2019. Documenting Latinx Lives. On-line archive of the student documentary films made in the video production seminar “Documenting Latino Lives” at Rutgers University (available at: https://vimeo.com/album/5141847

Media Appearances

• "4 posibles razones de por qué se multiplicó por 4 el número de peruanos que abandonan el
  país." [Four possible reasons why the number of Peruvians who left the country multiplied by four]. BBC Mundo.
• "Faculty Across Rutgers Join Initiative to Explore Impact of Pandemic".
• CaMP – Blog – Author interview with Elana Gershon (Sep. 2017)