Incoming MPI President Andrew Selee Awarded Prestigious Research Fellowship by Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program

WASHINGTON — Andrew Selee, who will become president of the Migration Policy Institute in August, today was named one of 35 recipients of the 2017 Andrew Carnegie fellowships, which support significant research and writing in the social sciences and humanities. The announcement was made today by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Selee, who is leaving his position as executive vice president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the end of this week, will use the time before he assumes his MPI duties to complete research and writing for his forthcoming book. The volume, Intimate Strangers: How Mexico Shapes Everyday Life in the United States, will be published in spring 2018 by PublicAffairs.

Selee, who was founding director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, has written extensively on U.S.-Mexico relations, U.S. immigration policy, Mexican politics, organized crime and democracy in Latin America. He is the author or co-editor of six books.

“We are delighted that Andrew has been selected for this prestigious fellowship program and are excited about his pathfinding research on Mexico and the United States,” said outgoing MPI President Michael Fix.

The fellows program recognizes an exceptional group of established and emerging scholars, authors and journalists, with the goal of strengthening U.S. democracy, driving technological and cultural creativity, exploring global connections and global ruptures, and improving both natural and human environments.

Each year, the Carnegie Corporation seeks nominations from more than 600 university, think tank and non-profit organization leaders as well as publishers and independent scholars. The 2017 fellows were selected from a pool of approximately 200 candidates whose proposals were evaluated by a panel of prominent scholars, educators and intellectuals.

“I am deeply honored to have been selected as a Carnegie Fellow, particularly in light of the program’s philosophy that scholarship plays a critical role in promoting an informed citizenry and the health of our democracy,” said Selee, who has been working on the book for two years.

Prior to joining the Wilson Center as a program associate in the Latin American Program in 2000, Selee was a professional staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives and worked for five years with the YMCA of Baja California in Tijuana, Mexico, helping to start a community center and a home for migrant youth. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies from Washington University in St. Louis, a master’s in Latin American studies from the University of California, San Diego and a PhD in policy studies from the University of Maryland.

For more on the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, including a listing of all 2017 fellows, click here.