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Kerilyn Schewel is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines the root causes of human migration and immobility, with an emphasis on the themes of gender, youth, education, rural development, and climate change. She has carried out extensive qualitative and mixed-methods fieldwork in Ethiopia. Her first book is Moved by Modernity: How Development Shapes Migration in Rural Ethiopia (2025, Oxford University Press).
Kerilyn currently teaches courses on sociological perspectives and contemporary immigration into the United States. She leads the the Resilient Communities Built on Farmer Flourishing project through a joint collaboration with the Duke Center for International Development, and is co-editing a volume Development in Transition: Rethinking Rural Futures with Pivot Press. She continues to collaborate with and serve as co-director of the Duke Program on Climate, Resilience and Mobility.
Kerilyn holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam (2019), an MSc in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford (2014), and a BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia (2009). She has held visiting researcher positions at the University of Addis Ababa and Princeton University.
Moved by Modernity
Moved by Modernity
Across headlines and scholarly research alike, migration from countries like Ethiopia is often framed as a crisis: poverty, climate change, and conflict pushing people from their homes. These dominant "push factor" narratives suggest that migration is a problem--and that development is the solution.
Moved by Modernity turns this assumption on its head, revealing how social and economic development can drive migration rather than reduce it. In this groundbreaking study, Kerilyn Schewel draws on extensive fieldwork in Wayisso, a rural Ethiopian village, to examine how generations of families adapted their aspirations, livelihoods, and migration strategies amid their country's tumultuous pursuit of modernization. Their stories offer rich insights into what development actually looks like in rural societies--and why it so often fuels both internal and international migration.
Interweaving life histories, survey data, and ethnographic vignettes, Moved by Modernity explores how key forces of social change--political reform, education, market expansion, and foreign investment--reshape both aspirations and capabilities to migrate. Schewel shows that those who leave Wayisso are not fleeing poverty; they are often more educated, better connected, and actively seeking modern lives. Meanwhile, the poorest households remain behind, unable to migrate--trapped by the very forces assumed to push them out.
Moved by Modernity offers a new framework for understanding why people migrate--and why they stay. It is a compelling critique of conventional development thinking and an essential resource for researchers, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the deeper forces shaping global mobility today.
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