Lauren Heidbrink
Education
- Ph.D. (2010), M.A. (2007) John Hopkins University, Anthropology
- M.A./M.S. (2003) DePaul University, International Public Service Management
- B.A. (1998) University of Virginia, City Planning, Latin American Studies, Spanish Literature
Research Interests
Lauren Heidbrink is a legal anthropologist whose work sits at the intersection of immigration law and policy, critical childhood studies, Maya communities in Guatemala, and ecocide and femicide in Ecuador. In Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State: Care and Contested Interests (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), she traces the experiences of unaccompanied migrant children in U.S. federal custody and following release. Her second book Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation (Stanford University Press, 2020; also available open access in Spanish) analyzes how securitized development and enforcement regimes reshape the futures of Indigenous Guatemalan youth deported from the United States and Mexico. Dr. Heidbrink is co-founder and editor of Youth Circulations, a curated digital exhibit tracing the real and imagined circulations of global youth, and of Pressing Issues in Latin America, a platform designed to make emergent research accessible to interdisciplinary and multilingual publics. Dr. Heidbrink is currently accepting graduate and undergraduate applicants for her research lab Immigration Research Hub.
Courses Taught
- HDEV 205: Immigrant Youth in Long Beach
- HDEV 307: Approaches to Childhood
- HDEV 310: Qualitative Methods in Human Development
- HDEV 405: Latin American Childhoods
- HDEV 410: Recipes for Resistance
- HDEV 470: Seminar/Practicum
- UHP 496A/496B/498: Honors Senior Project
- Heidbrink, L., M. Cruz, G. Hernandez, and E. Gonzalez. (In Press). “We’re stronger together”: Community-based research in undergraduate courses. Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education.
- Frank-Vitale, A., L. Heidbrink and L. X. Guaman. (2026). Empty Justice: Ethnographic Court-Watching in Authoritarian Times. Journal of North American Anthropology. 29(1): e70009. DOI: 10.1002/nad.70009
- Heidbrink, L. Barillas Chón, D., and G. Batz. 2024. Family Separation under Zero Tolerance: US crimes against Indigenous Peoples. Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis, 6(1), 9-35.
- Mendiola Luna, L., Beltran, A., Fuentes, M., Zeferino, F., & Heidbrink, L. 2024. Inclusive Undergraduate Research Opportunities for Undocumented Students.Journal of First-Generation Student Success, 4(2), 193–203.
- Escalante Villagrán, C., A. Grewe, A. Lopez, J. Pacay Mendoza, S. Pacay Mendoza and L. Heidbrink. 2024. Mercados Dignos: Intergenerational accompaniment among Indigenous collectives in Guatemala/Mercados Dignos: Acompañamiento intergeneracional entre colectivos indígenas en Guatemala. In Towards an Anthropology of Accompaniment: Engaged Ethnography with Im/migrant Communities eds. K. Yarris and W. Duncan. Arizona University Press.
- Heidbrink, L. and S. Diaz. 2023. Denouncing Medical Practices that Imperil Unaccompanied Youth. Harvard Public Health Review, 74: 10.54111/0001/VVV1.
- Heidbrink, L. 2023. Containing futures: the governance of youths’ migratory aspirations in comparative context. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(4): 811-829.
- Heidbink, L. 2023. Cultural Elaboration of Care: Mobility among Indigenous Youth in Guatemala. In ¿Crisis for whom? Critical global perspectives on childhood, care, and migration. Crisis según quién? Perspectivas críticas internacionales sobre la infancia, el cuidado y la migración. Edited by R. Rosen, E. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. Chase, S. Crafter and S. Mitra. London: University College of London Press.
- Heidbrink, L. 2022. ““How can I have a future?”: The temporal violence of deportation. Journal of Intercultural Studies 4(43), DOI: 10.1080/07256868.2022.2086224
- Heidbrink, L. In Press 2022.Enabling or Subverting Legal Violence? Expert Witnesses in Immigration Proceedings. Annals of Anthropological Practice 46(1): 80-82.
- Heidbrink, , Batz, G. and C. Sánchez. In Press. “Why would anyone leave?”: Development, overindebtedness, and migration in Guatemala. Maya America.
- Heidbrink, L. 2021. Migrantidad: La juventud en una nueva era de deportaciones. Mexico City, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de investigaciones Multidisciplinarias sobre Chiapas y Centroamérica.
- Heidbrink, L., G. Afable and Delia. 2021. Delia’s Return: The detention and deportation of unaccompanied children/El Retorno de Delia: La Migración y Deportación de una Niña No-acompañada. American Anthropologist 123(3): 685-702.
- Statz, M. and Heidbrink, L. 2021. Unintended Trauma: The Role of Public Health Policy in the Detention of Migrant Children. The Lancet.
- Heidbrink, L. and M. Statz. 2021. Youth Circulations: Tracing the real and imagined circulations of global youth. In Children and Youth as Subjects, Objects, Agents: Approaches to Research in a Global Context. Edited by F. Vavrus, M. Maynes & D. Levison. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- Heidbrink, L. 2020. Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. (Book Manuscript)
- Heidbrink, L. 2020. Anatomy of a Crisis: Governing Youth Mobility through Vulnerability. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2020.1797479.
- Heidbrink, L. 2020. Benevolent Complicity: The detention of unaccompanied children. In Diverse Unfreedoms and their Ghosts: Interrogations, Transitions, Legacies, and Re-imaginings. Edited by K. Green, C. Coe and S. Balagopalan. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- Statz, M. and L. Heidbrink. 2019. A Better “Best Interests”: Immigration Policy in a Comparative Context. Law and Policy 41(4): 365-386.
- Heidbrink, L. 2019. Debt-driven Migration among indigenous youth in Guatemala. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology.
- Heidbrink, L. 2019. Acts of Removal. In Il/legal Encounters: Migration, Detention, and Deportation in the Lives of Young People. Edited by D. Boehm and S. Terrio. New York: New York University Press.
- Heidbrink, L. 2019. Borders. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Heidbrink, L. 2018. Circulation of care among unaccompanied migrant youth from Guatemala. Children and Youth Services Review 92: 30-38.
- Heidbrink, L. 2017. Assessing Parental Fitness and Care for Unaccompanied Children. The Journal of the Social Sciences 3(4): 37-52
- Heidbrink, L. and M. Statz. 2017. Parents of Global Youth: Contesting Debt and Belonging. Children’s Geographies 15(5): 545-557.
- Cardoso, J., K. Brabeck, D. Stinchcomb, D. Birman, L. Heidbrink, O. Price, and L. Zayas. 2017. Integration of unaccompanied migrant youth in the United States: a call for research. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, (2017): 1-20.
- Zayas, L.; K. Brabeck; L. Heffron, PhD; J. Dreby; E. Calzada; J. Parra-Cardona; A. Dettlaff; L. Heidbrink; K. Perreira; H. Yoshikawa. 2017. Charting Directions for Research on Undocumented and Unaccompanied Immigrant Children and Citizen Children. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences.
- Langtiw, C. and L. Heidbrink. 2016. Removal, betrayal, and resistance: Comparative analysis of black youth in the U.S. and Haitian-descendant youth in the Dominican Republic. Community Psychology in Global Perspective 2(2): 40-55.
- Heidbrink, L. 2015. Unintended Consequences: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Journal of Applied Research on Children 5(2): Article 2, 1-29.
- Richardson, W., L. Heidbrink and A. Muhammed. 2015. Black Learning Matters: Experiences of Exclusion and Lessons for Inclusion of Students of Color in Higher Education. In RIP Jim Crow: Fighting Racism through Higher Education Policy, Curriculum, and Cultural Interventions. Series: Equity in Higher Education Theory, Policy, & Praxis. Virginia Stead, editor. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
- Heidbrink, L. 2014. Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State: Care and Contested Interests. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Human Rights Series. (Book Manuscript)
- Heidbrink, L. 2013. Humanitarian Refugee or Criminal Alien?: The Social Agency of Migrant Youth. American Bar Association Children’s Legal Rights Journal 33(1): 133-190.
- Heidbrink, L. 2012. At a Crossroads: Youth at the Intersection of the Family and the State. In Transnational Migration, Gender and Rights. Ragnhild Sollund, editor. Great Britain: Emerald Press.
- Heidbrink, L. 2010. Recasting the Agency of Unaccompanied Youth. In Emerging Perspectives on Children in Migratory Circumstances: Selected Proceedings of the Working Group on Childhood and Migration June 2008 Conference. R. Reynolds, et al., editors. Philadelphia: Drexel University College of Arts and Sciences and the Drexel iDea Repository. 2010.
- ÓRALE Impact Report 2025. Organizing Rooted in Abolition, Liberation, and Empowerment.
- Heidbrink, L. 2024. From Congregate Care to Community-Based Care: Strengthening Reunification and Support of Unaccompanied Children. Washington, DC: Women’s Refugee Committee.
- Heidbrink, L. and S. Diaz. 2024. Kids In Care: Unaccompanied Children in Federal Government Custody. Center for Human Rights of Children.
- Heidbrink, L. and M. Statz. 2024. Issue brief: Indigenous Child Migration: Research, Law, and Policy for Consideration in Immigration Proceedings. National Association of Immigration Judges.
- Heidbrink, L. and I. Pinheiro. 2024. Censo de Cantón Candelaria. Guatemala: Colectivo Vida Digna.
- Barillas Chón, D., Batz, G. and L. Heidbrink. 2023. Family Separation under Zero Tolerance: US crimes against Indigenous Peoples. Amicus brief prepared for the International Criminal Court.
- Heidbrink, L. 2023. Decreasing ORR’s Dependence on Congregate Care: Four Recommendations for Progress. Washington, DC: Women’s Refugee Commission.
- Heidbrink, L., N. Salcedo, A. Beltran, L. Mendiola Luna, Y. Carillo, M. Fuentes Guzman, G. Hernandez, A. Eun Jang, V. Versher, J. Conde Mendez. 2023. Supporting Undocumented Students: A report from the Dream Success Center. California State University, Long Beach.
- Heidbrink, L., M. Cruz, and G. Hernandez. 2023. ÓRALE Impact Report 2021-2022. Organizing Rooted in Abolition, Liberation, and Empowerment.
- Heidbrink, L., S. Chuc Norato, and M. Garcia Maldonado. 2022. Conditions of Children and Youth in Guatemala/Condiciones de niños, niñas, y jóvenes en Guatemala. Pressing Issues in Latin America.
- Heidbrink, L. and Frank-Vitale, A. 2021. Development Aid: A “Root Cause” of Child Migration. International Organization for Migration: Migration Policy Practice 11(2): 21-25.
- Heidbrink, L. and Frank-Vitale, A. 2021. Ayuda al desarrollo: una causa fundamental de la migración de menores. Contra Corriente.
- Heidbrink, L. and M. Statz. 2021. Podcast: Children and Youth as Subjects, Agents and Objects. Critical Childhoods and Youth Studies
- Frank Vitale, A. and Heidbrink, L. 2021, May 24. The Real Root Cause of Central American Migration. In These Times.
- Heidbrink, L. 2021. Unaccompanied children navigate federal custody. Penn Press.
- Heidbrink, L. 2021. Opinion: The Cruelty of detention for Young Migrants. Press Telegram.
- Heidbrink, L. 2020, September. “El Poder Coactivo de la Deuda: La Migración y Deportación de jóvenes Indigenas” Organization of American States, 68-77.
- Heidbrink, L. and A.Grewe. 2020. Dual Crisis: Health and Fear in Guatemala. Youth Circulations.
- Anthropologist Action Network for Immigrants and Refugees. 2020. What International Student Services can learn from Undocumented Students. Society for Applied Anthropology.
- Heidbrink, L., W. Duncan, and K. Yarris.2019. Webinar: Providing Expert Testimony: Promises and Pitfalls of Engaging in Immigration Proceedings. Sponsored by the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.
- Heidbrink, L. and M. Statz. 2019. The Blame Game: Criminalizing migrant parents. Youth Circulations.
- Heidbrink, L. 2018. Radicalizing Tensions Between Fascism and Solidarity in Italy. Youth Circulations.
- Statz, M. and L. Heidbrink. 2018. Migration as Clickbait. Anthropology News. DOI: 10.1111/AN.760.
- Duncan, W.; Heidbrink, L. and K. Yarris. 2018. Im/migration in the Era of Trump; Hot Spots. Cultural Anthropology.
- Heidbrink, L. 2018. Care in Contexts of Child Detention; Hot Spots. Cultural Anthropology.
- Heidbrink, L., G. Batz, & C. Sanchez. 2017. Almolonga: Informe Comunitario/Almolonga: A Community Report. Funded by National Science Foundation.
- Heidbrink, L. 2017. Migration and Belonging: Narratives from a Highland Town. Youth Circulations.
- Art exhibition, “Migration and Belonging: Narratives from a Highland Town/Migración y Pertenencia: Narrativas de un pueblo del altiplano.”
- Almolonga, Guatemala, 2019
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, 2018
- Loyola University, Chicago, IL, 2018
- Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, Long Beach, CA, 2017.
- Conference on Emotional Geographies, American Association of Geographers, Long Beach, CA 2017.
- University of California, Los Angeles, 2017.
- Yarris, K.; L. Heidbrink; and W. Duncan. 2016. Protecting Undocumented Students Post-Election: From meeting to action. Working together to support our students. Anthropology News.
- Heidbrink, L. and M. Statz. 2014, September. Widening the Frame: Unaccompanied Youth. Anthropology of Children and Youth. Anthropology of Childhood and Youth Interest Group.
- Castañeda, H.; L. Heidbrink; and K. Yarris. 2014. September. From Alienation to Protection: Central American Child Migration. Access Denied.
