Heba Gowayed is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College. Her research, which is global and comparative, centers the lives of people who migrate across borders, and the unequal and often violent institutions they face. She is author of Refuge, published with Princeton University Press, which explores how states shape the potential of people pursuing refuge within their borders. She is currently working on her second book, The Cost of Borders, which theorizes borders as series of costly, and often deadly, transactions.

Her writing has appeared in academic journals including Gender & Society, Ethnic & Racial Studies, American Behavioral Scientist and Sociological Forum, as well as in public outlets including Slate, Al Jazeera English, The New Humanitarian, and Teen Vogue.