Susan Bibler Coutin

Biography

Susan Bibler Coutin, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. A scholar of immigration law and legal anthropology, Coutin has spent over three decades examining the legal experiences of Central American—particularly Salvadoran—immigrants in the United States, with attention to how immigration law constructs, excludes, and shapes the lives of non-citizens. Her research has been supported by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation's Law and Social Science Program, as well as funding from the Haynes Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the University of California Humanities Research Institute.

Coutin is the author of several books published by university presses including Duke, Cornell, Michigan, Stanford, and the University of California, and has served in significant administrative roles at UC Irvine, including Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the School of Social Ecology and Associate Dean of the Graduate Division. She served as President of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology from 2011 to 2013 and has been a Trustee of the Law and Society Association twice.

Coutin received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1990. She and her co-authors received the Law and Society Association Best Article Prize for "In the Mirror: The Legitimation Work of Globalization," published in Law and Social Inquiry.

Education

• Ph.D. in Anthropology, Stanford University, 1990
• M.A. in Anthropology, Stanford University, 1985
• B.A. in Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1983

Distinctions

• Organization of American States Latin America Scholar, 1985
• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1983-1986
• Stanford Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, 1986-1987
• Law and Society Association Best Article Prize (with Bill Maurer and Barbara Yngvesson) for 'In the Mirror: The Legitimation Work of Globalization', 2003
• UC Irvine Social Ecology Dean's Award for Inclusive Excellence in Research for Exiled Home (shared with Walter Nicholls), 2017
• UC Irvine Resident Fellow, Feminism, Global Cultures, and Cyberspace research group, UC Humanities Research Institute, 2003
• American Association of University Women Doctoral Fellow, 1987-1988
• Phi Beta Kappa, 1983
• Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies Research Fellow, 1995-1997
• Faculty Mentor Academy Workshop Completion Certificate, UC Irvine, 2025