Education: 

• PhD, Sociology, International Migration, Ethnographic Methods, Michigan State University, 2000
• MPA., International Development, Monterey Institute of International Studies, 1986
• BA, Religion, Pacific Union College, 1982

PRINCIPAL RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP & CREATIVE ACTIVITY (RSCA)

Since coming to La Sierra in 2008, my research has taken the form of immersive ethnographies with refugee communities in the Inland Empire, Germany, and Slovenia. The deeper I was guided into peoples’ lives, a realization came into focus— that refugees are people from whom belonging has been taken, but who heroically fight under appalling circumstances to reclaim it. A seven year study led to publishing Iraqi Refugees in the United States, in 2021. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian in 2022, my research turned to the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the violence of war to find protection in the Europe. In 2024 I went to Slovenia to interview Ukrainian refugees. I continue to conduct interviews with Ukrainians in Europe and the U.S., as try to give voice to their experiences in writing and photography.

Research Areas:

• Ukrainian Refugees in Slovenia
• Belonging and Displacement in the New Age of Empires

Email: kcrane@lasierra.edu
Phone: 951-785-2369

Representative Publications

1. Iraqi Refugees in the United States: the Enduring Effects of the War on Terror. New York University Press, 2021.
2. “‘The Country Chooses You:’ Discourses of Mobility and Immobility among Iraqi Refugees.” Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security. Vol. 7, No. 1. 2019.
3. “To be with my people:  Latino Churches in the Midwest” (with Ann V. Millard). In Apple Pie and Enchiladas:  Latinos in the Midwest. Edited by Jorge Chapa and Ann V. Millard. Austin:  University of Texas Press, 2004.
4. “Mexicans, Americans, and Neither: Students at Wheelerton High.” In Apple Pie and Enchiladas:  Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest, edited by Jorge Chapa and Ann V. Millard. Austin:  University of Texas Press, 2004.
5. Latino Churches:  Family, Faith, and Ethnicity in the Second Generation.  Leo Balk Scholarly: New York, 2003.