About

I am currently an Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I teach courses on immigration, refugees, borders, and public health. I am also an ACLS Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year. I received my Ph.D. in U.S. history from Columbia University in May 2020. My B.A. is from Duke University and I previously held the Bear Fellowship in Business, Law, and Human Rights at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

My dissertation received the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians and the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Immigration & Ethnic History Society. My first book, Detention Power: American Jails & the Origins of Immigrant Incarceration, is under contract with Princeton University Press.

I became a historian of immigration after years of witnessing the politics and protests around the Krome Service Processing Center, an immigration detention site in my home community of South Florida. Though my current project looks at cases of migrant incarceration from coast to coast, I remain committed to incorporating as much Florida history as possible.

I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me at blnofil@wm.edu.