Degrees
Professor Aptekar holds a PhD in Sociology. She is the author of the books Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat and The Road to Citizenship: What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States and co-author of Lend and Rule: Fighting the Shadow Financialization of Public Universities with the Coalition against Campus Debt. She is finishing another book about the experiences of undocumented students at CUNY, co-authored with Professor Amy Hsin at Queens College. Dr. Aptekar is an organizer in the Public Higher Education Workers network with Labor Notes, and a long-time activist in the higher education labor movement, currently serving as a delegate of the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY. She was born in the Soviet Union and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She worked as a certified public school teacher before embarking on a career in academia. At SLU, she teaches courses on research methods, urban social problems, and community development.
Recent News
- Ph.D. Princeton University, 2010 (Sociology)
- B.A. Yale University, 2001 (Sociology)
Selected Publications
Books
- Lend and Rule: Fighting the Shadow Financialization of Public Universities (co-authored, Common Notions)
- The Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
- The Road to Citizenship: What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Areas of Interest
- Immigration
- Gentrification, Public Space, Urban Agriculture
- Military and US empire
- Collective memory
- Higher education
- Alternatives to capitalism
- Debt
Grants / Awards
- 2024-2025 Social Practice CUNY Faculty Fellow
- 2023-2024 CUNY Black, Racial, and Ethnic Studies Research Faculty Fellow
- 2019-20 Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Fellow
- 2017 T. Grant Foundation ($600,000), co-PI with Amy Hsin and Holly Reed of Queens College, “Immigration Status and Higher Education: Evidence from a Large Urban University”
Boards and Organizations
- Co-chair of the NYC Chapter of Scholar Strategy Network
- Book review co-editor of City & Community journal
Other Media
- Slate’s What Next – podcast episode
- Immigrantly – podcast episode
- What a Hell of a Way to Die – podcast episode
- New Books Network – podcast episode
- “The US Military’s Defense of Affirmative Action Is Hypocritical and Self-Serving” – article in Jacobin
- I asked immigrants from 28 countries why they’re serving in the US military – and it’s not primarily to gain citizenship – article in The Conversation
Articles
- 2023. “Green Card Soldiers.” Contexts, 23(1), 12-17.
- 2023. “Heterogeneous Effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on Undocumented College Students’ Educational Outcomes in the United States” International Migration Review. with Keitaro Okura and Amy Hsin.
- 2022. “Stratified Entry into Illegality: How Immigration Policy Shapes Being Undocumented.” Social Forces 102(1):45-62. With Amy Hsin.
- 2022. “Managing Illegality on Campus: Undocumented Mismatch between Students and Staff”. Harvard Educational Review 92(1): 32-54. With Holly Reed and Amy Hsin.
- 2021.“The Violence of Asylum: The Case of Undocumented Chinese Migration to the United States.” Social Forces 100(3): 1195–1217. Winner of Asia and Asian America Section of the American Sociological Association 2024 Research Paper Award
- 2020. “The Contemporary Immigrant Rights Movement in the United States and Capitalism,” Socialism and Democracy33(3), 1-25. Special Issue on Seattle +20. With Marcel Paret and Shannon Gleeson.
- 2020. “The Tale of Two Community Gardens: Green Aesthetics versus Food Justice in the Big Apple,” Agriculture and Human Values. With Justin S. Myers.
- 2020. “Doctors as Migration Brokers in the Mandatory Medical Screenings of Immigrants to the United States.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46(9): 1865-1885
- 2019. “The Public Library as Resistive Space in the Neoliberal City.” City & Community18(4): 1203-1219.
- 2019. “The Unbearable Lightness of the Cosmopolitan Canopy: Accomplishment of Diversity at an Urban Farmers Market.” City & Community18(1): 71-87.
- 2019. “Super-diversity as a Methodological Approach: Re-centering Power and Inequality.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. Special Issue: Super-diversity in Everyday Life. 42(1): 53-70.
- 2017. “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Collective Memory and Neighborhood Identity in Two Urban Parks.” Symbolic Interaction40(1): 101-121.
- 2016. “Celebrating New Citizens, Defining the Nation.” Contexts15(2): 46-51.
- 2016. “Gifts among Strangers: The Social Organization of Freecycle Giving.” Social Problems63(2):266-283.
- 2015. “Making Sense of Naturalization: What Citizenship Means to Naturalizing Immigrants in Canada and the USA.” Journal of International Migration and Integration17(4), 1143-1161.
- 2015. “Visions of Public Space: Reproducing and Resisting Social Hierarchies in a Diverse Community Garden.” Sociological Forum30(1): 209-227.
- 2014. “Citizenship Status and Patterns of Inequality in the United States and Canada.” Social Science Quarterly95(2): 343-359.
- 2012. “Naturalization Ceremonies and the Role of Immigrants in the American Nation.” Citizenship Studies.16(7): 937-952.
- 2009. “Contexts of Exit in the Migration of Russian Speakers from the Baltic Countries to Ireland.” Ethnicities 9(4):507-526.
- 2009. “Organizational Life and Political Incorporation of Two Asian Immigrant Groups: A Case Study.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32(9):1511-1533.
Recent Presentations
- 2024.“The Nature of Military Labor: Working in the US Military,” paper presentation at the Working Class Studies Association annual meeting.
- 2024. “Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat,” invited book talk at American Studies Program, Cornell University
- 2023. “Militarism, Empire, and Citizenship in Post 9/11 America,” with Nadia Abu El-Haj, livestreamed book event at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
- 2023. “Humor and Illegality: Reproducing and Coping with Immigration Status Hierarchies.” Paper presentation at Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Meeting, Philadelphia
- 2023. “Illegalized Immigrants and the US Military: Approximating Citizenship,” Paper presentation at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia
- 2023. “Green Card Soldiers, Empire, and Debt,” Debt Collective Jubilee School.
