She received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Arizona, and her M.A. in history from the University of Oregon. Her research interests focus on the history of citizenship and the law from the late nineteenth century through the present. She recently published Prisons and Patriots: Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory with Temple University Press. Lyon is currently working on her next book, On the Borders of Citizenship, a case study approach to the limits of American citizenship during the long 20th Century. Lyon teaches courses on U.S. citizenship and the law, and immigration and ethnic history at CSUSB, along with introductory courses to public and oral history.