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Justin Gest is a Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.

He is the author of six books, primarily on the politics of immigration and demographic change—all from Oxford University Press or Cambridge University Press.

His research has been published in journals including the British Journal of Politics and International RelationsComparative Political StudiesEthnic and Racial StudiesGlobal GovernanceGlobal PolicyInternational Migration ReviewMigration StudiesPolity, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the editor of Silent Citizenship: The Politics of Marginality in Unequal Democracies (Routledge, 2016), and special issues of Citizenship Studies and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

He has also provided commentary, analysis, or reporting to a number of broadcast networks, including ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, and NPR, and news publications including The AtlanticThe Boston GlobeThe GuardianLos Angeles TimesThe New York Times, POLITICO, Reuters, The Times, Vox, and The Washington Post.

From 2010 to 2014, Professor Gest was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in Harvard University’s Departments of Government and Sociology. In 2014 and 2020, Professor Gest received Harvard University’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize and George Mason University’s Teaching Excellence Award, respectively each university’s highest award for faculty teaching. In 2013, he received the Star Family Prize for Student Advising, Harvard’s highest award for student advising. From 2007 to 2010, he co-founded and served as the co-director of the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

He is a product of Los Angeles Unified School District’s University High School in West Los Angeles, where he grew up. He later earned his bachelor’s degree in Government at Harvard University and his PhD in Government from the LSE.

+ Awards & Recognition

Beck Family Presidential Medal
for Faculty Research
2023

George Mason University
Award for Teaching Excellence
2020

BISA Book Prize
Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora
2019

APSA Migration and Citizenship
Book Prize Honorable Mention
2019

Stein Rokkan Prize
Social Science Research, Honorable Mention
2019

Harvard University
Levenson Memorial Prize for Teaching
2014

Harvard University
Star Family Award for Student Advising
2013

APSA Norton Long
Young Scholar Prize
2010

APSA Clarence Stone
Scholar Award
2010

LSE William Robson
Doctoral Thesis Prize
2010