Dr. Volker Heins is a political scientist and migration scholar, who taught as a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, until 2022. He is also a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen. His most recent publication, entitled, “Internalization of Borders: The Concept and Its Applications”, was published online in 2024 in the journal, Society. You can read the article here.
Dr. Heins is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois-Chicago pursuing his interest in the global sanctuary city movement by focusing on the sanctuary policies and practices in Chicago. He will be at the UHLC at the invitation of Professor Daniel Morales to research sanctuary movements in Houston and their effects on the lives of undocumented migrants.