I am an Associate Professor of Practice and Assistant Director of Global Studies in the School of Global Integrative Studies. I also serve as the Faculty Coordinator for Nebraska Peace Corps Prep and as the Faculty Advisor for the Museum Studies Certificate. As a cultural anthropologist, my teaching and research explore migration, identity and belonging, globalization, and the ways people and communities navigate social and cultural change.

Teaching and mentoring are central to my work. I develop courses and experiential learning opportunities that connect global issues to students' lives and communities through research, internships, education abroad, community partnerships, and other forms of engaged learning. I also mentor students pursuing undergraduate research, nationally competitive fellowships, international experiences, and globally engaged careers.

Current Research

My current research focuses on migration, refugee resettlement, integration, and belonging. I am particularly interested in how communities respond to migration and the roles that local governments, nonprofit organizations, community institutions, and refugees and immigrants themselves play in creating places where newcomers can participate and build a sense of belonging.

Much of my recent work has focused on Nebraska, including research on the history of refugee resettlement in the state, immigrant and refugee integration, and the experiences and stories of newcomers who have made Nebraska home. Increasingly, I am interested in placing this work within a comparative international context and examining how different historical, political, and institutional settings shape community responses to migration.

My research is grounded in cultural anthropology and community-engaged scholarship and seeks to connect the lived experiences of immigrants and refugees with the institutions, relationships, and communities that shape the long-term processes of integration and belonging.

Teaching

My teaching emphasizes interdisciplinary and experiential approaches to understanding global issues. Courses I teach include:

• ANTH/ETHN 212: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
• ANTH/GLST 203: Machine Learning and Meaning: AI for Social Inquiry in a Globalized World
• ANTH 492: Stitching Culture: US-Japan Quilt Exhibit Collaborative
• GLST 201: Introduction to Global Studies
• GLST 280: Colonization, Decolonization and Globalization
• GIST 395: Internship in Global Studies
• GLST 484: Global Studies Capstone
• UGEP 484: Peace Corps Prep

I have also developed and led faculty-led education abroad courses in Belize, India, Belgium and the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and Québec.

Areas of Expertise

Migration and refugee resettlement; immigrant and refugee integration; belonging and community; cultural anthropology; global studies; community-engaged research; globalization; identity; Islam and Muslim communities; Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia; experiential and global learning.

Publications

Bokovoy, M., Castro, J., Guill, L., Carr Hassler, M., & Ibrahimpašić, E. (Eds.). 2026. The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees: Tales of Migration, Hope, Grief, and Finding Home in Nebraska. University of Nebraska Press. Forthcoming. https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9781496249647/the-lives-of-immigrants-and-refugees/
→ Co-author of Introduction: Ibrahimpašić, E., & Reilly, J. “Where Strangers Become Neighbors” 

Ibrahimpašić, E., and Reilly, J. 2025. Recent arrivals: Refugee resettlement in Nebraska. In K. Abourezk, M. D. Mays, P. Olson, G. Bruguier, P. Love, A. F. Sasse, H. Fryer, J. S. Onésimo Sándoval, S. Ishii-Jordan, E. Ibrahimpašić, & J. Reilly (Eds.), Roots of justice: A history of race and racism in Nebraska (pp. 259–296). Zea Books. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/170/ 

Perdikaris, S., S. Grouard, R. Boger, A. Bain, A. Jallon, E. Gonzalez, E. Ibrahimpasic. 2024. Long-Term Perspectives on Sustainability, Resilience and Change on the Island of Barbuda. In  Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience, S. M Fitzpatrick, J. M. Erlandson and K. M. Gill (eds.)  University of Florida Press 3(77-131). 

Payne, K. and E. Ibrahimpašić. 2022. Academic Advising and the Lessons of the Civil Rights and Social Justice Campus Movements. In Journal of Educational Administration and History. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2022.2151990 

Ibrahimpašić, E., S. Perdikaris and R. Boger. 2022. Chapter 7: Disaster Capitalism: Who has a Right to Control their Future? In Barbuda: Changing Times Changing Tides. Sophia Perdikaris and Rebecca Boger (Eds.) Routledge 

Perdikaris, S., R. Abadie, E. Gonzales and E. Ibrahimpašić. 2022. Politics of prevention in the periphery: The initial response to COVID-19 on Barbuda and Puerto Rico In Island Studies Journal Special Issue: Critical Climate Change. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.381.

Ibrahimpašić, E. and K. Payne 2021. Collective Memory and Critical Pedagogy: Approaching Education Abroad in Europe through the Critical Themes of Dissidence and Social Protest In Empires of the Mind? (Post)Colonialism and Decolonizing Education Abroad, CAPA: The Global Education Network Academic Publications, United Kingdom.

S. Perdikaris, R. Boger, E. Gonzalez, E. Ibrahimpašić and J. D. Adams. 2021. Disrupted identities and forced nomads: A post disaster legacy of neocolonialism in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles, In Nomadic Identities Issue of Island Studies Journal, 16 (1): pp. 115-134. 

Perdikaris, S., R. Boger, E. Ibrahimpasic. 2019. Seduction, Promises and the Disneyfication of Barbuda Post Irma. TRANSLOCAL Contemporary Local and Urban Cultures Journal. Number 5 (un)inhabited spaces. Ana Salgueiro and Nuno Marques (eds). ISSN 2184-1519 Madeira and Umeå. Tanslocal.cm-funchal.pt/2019/05/02/revista05/