Nisrin Elamin

Nisrin Elamin is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. She holds a cross-appointment in African Studies and focuses on sociocultural anthropology, particularly examining intersections of land rights, racial capitalism, and empire-making in Sudan and the Sahel region.

• PhD from Stanford University
• Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University's Society of Fellows
• Teaching experience at Bryn Mawr College and in Tanzania

Her research explores how land dispossession and Gulf Arab investments shape state surveillance, migration, and community resistance. Using multi-sited ethnography and historical analysis, she investigates gendered and racialized dynamics of land enclosure in Sudan's Gezira region.

Her recent publications analyze Sudanese revolutions, land politics, and transnational land investment trends. She has conducted 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in central Sudan, engaging with local courts, farming communities, and Sufi religious leaders.

• Diversifying Academia Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Fellowship, Stanford University
• Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship
• National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
• Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant