Rihan Yeh

Rihan Yeh is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), specializing in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology. She leads the Linguistic Anthropology Lab and focuses on the dynamics of publics and the public sphere in Tijuana, Mexico, particularly the impact of the US-Mexico border on social identity, citizenship, and transnational mobility. Her research explores how border dynamics shape subjectivity and collective identity through everyday interactions, visual exchanges, and linguistic practices.

• Affiliations: UCSD Department of Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology Lab
• Education: PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology (University of Chicago, 2009), MA (University of Chicago, 2004), BA in Music (Barnard College, 2000)

Research Interests: She investigates transborder mobilities, urban studies, semiotics, and the interplay between sovereignty and citizenship. Her book Passing: Two Publics in a Mexican Border City (2018) examines how the border’s promise of passage and threat of prohibition shape Tijuana’s communal identity. Current projects include a book on visual exchanges at the border and semiotics of mobility.

Recent Trends in Articles: Recent work analyzes border-related sovereignty, state violence, public discourse on migration, and the semiotics of border infrastructure. Articles often bridge linguistic analysis with broader sociopolitical themes, such as how jokes and visual displays reflect tensions between autonomy and heteronomy.

• Awards: Honorable Mention, Gregory Bateson Prize (Society for Cultural Anthropology)

Labs/Teams: Active in UCSD’s Anthropology Department, running the Linguistic Anthropology Lab, which focuses on language and social interaction in border contexts.