I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at UC Berkeley, where I study Political Theory. My research and teaching interests bring together Migration and Citizenship Studies, Global Justice, and the History of Liberal Political Thought.

My work examines the relationship between noncitizens and the state. In political theory, citizenship is often thought of as a bundle of rights. These rights are meant to enable citizens to make claims on the state and protect them from arbitrary power. But it is less clear how we should think about the normative relationship between noncitizens and the state: What moral principles should govern that relationship, and what, if anything, do state actors owe to noncitizens?

To begin answering these questions, my dissertation explores one of the systems through which noncitizens gain access to the state: asylum. Methodologically, I use ethnographic methods to generate new critical and normative insights.

Before coming to Berkeley, I received a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Pompeu Fabra University, spending one year at the University of Chicago. I hold an MA in International Conflict Studies from King’s College London.

I am also the Managing Editor of Free & Equal: A Journal of Ethics and Public Affairs.

You can reach me at anna.closas[at]berkeley.edu. Welcome!