Have you ever wondered how the relationship between place and identity is created? Born and raised in Zimbabwe, and an immigrant to the United States, Elana Zilberg, has always been sensitive about questions regarding place, space, belonging, and not belonging. An Associate Professor in the Communication Department and an Associate Director of the Center for Global California Studies at UCSD, Zilberg focuses her research interests on the movement of the Americas.

For many people migration is a somewhat sensitive and controversial topic, but for Zilberg, it hits home. Three generations and four different continents later, migration has continuously been a part of her family’s story. Growing up in amidst of the Civil War, Zilberg felt empathy for those who were displaced. While living and working in LA during the 80s, her fascination with migration led her to get involved with immigrants rights groups.

In her book Space of Detention: The Making of a Transnational Gang Crisis between Los Angeles and San Salvador (Duke University Press Fall 2011), Zilberg examines how the borders of nation state are policed in immigrant barrios in the United States and El Salvador. She focuses on the connection between immigration, criminal, and antiterrorist law, and how it correlates to these urban landscapes.



“The history of the world is all about the movement of people,” said Zilberg. All nations are human creations, and borders are not natural. Even the way we ascribe identity in terms of race is all constructed. We take it as natural because that is how culture works.”

Passionate about her research and teachings, Zilberg vibrantly instructs her students about the complexity of the cities and countries in which they live. Trying to see the connection between culture and communication and identity and space and how those things work is not only what she teaches, but also what she believes in.

“I have always been a cultural minority.”