Shelby O'Neill
Biography
Shelby O’Neill is a sociologist and postdoctoral research associate at the Watson Institute at Brown University. He is currently writing an ethnography of U.S.-bound migration from a small village in Guanajuato, Mexico. By centering the experiences and aspirations of migrants and their families, his work engages broader topics of documentation, displacement, and social mobility. He tracks the distinct ways in which U.S. immigration policy impacts the people he writes about, as well as the complex relationships to home and place that emerge alongside migratory departure. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University.
Research
My research involves years of close engagement with migratory communities. My dissertation, entitled “Bury Me with My People: Migration from a Mexican Rancho,” tracks the experiences of migrants from a village in Guanajuato, Mexico as they navigate life in the US, some with temporary documentation to work in agriculture, others undocumented. I pay specific attention to the policies that shape their experiences and seek to capture the details of their lives: their reasons for migrating, their aspirations and doubts, their workdays, and their relationships to home. I also worked extensively in their home community, unpacking its histories of migration and the factors that motivate a younger generation to leave for the US, like their parents did.