Journal Special Issue

Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship

Special Issue on Immigration and Immigrant Community Engagement: Democracy Realized through Immigrant Integration

Guest Editorial Team

Synopsis

This special issue of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (forthcoming vol. 16, no. 3, Fall/Winter 2024) brings together an interdisciplinary and demographically diverse group of students, practitioners, policymakers, and scholars to examine U.S. immigration policy, practice, and the organizations which facilitate immigrant integration. The special issue highlights community-based and community-engaged research that surfaces immigrant voices, those who work in partnership with immigrants, and those who do research in collaboration with and on behalf of immigrant communities.

In partnership with the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (JCES), the special issue editors have curated a collection of articles that align with the JCES’s mission as well as advance representative and direct democracy through the full incorporation and inclusion of immigrant communities throughout the U.S. As such, this issue integrates the voices of diverse immigrant communities as well as the voices of emerging and established academic scholars and community researchers. The special issue transcends scale by including the experiences of small unincorporated rural areas to large cities, including creative approaches, analyses, and methodologies. This special issue advances scholarship that authentically captures the lived experiences of immigrants and those who facilitate their integration and democratic engagement.

Immigration and the immigrant experience are inextricably tied to the past, present, and future of the United States. Native Peoples, established U.S. residents and citizens, and newcomers all are part of the celebrated and controversial stories that shape “the story of U.S.” However, much is said about immigrants, without truly incorporating their own stories and contributions into the narrative; a narrative, we believe, that has the potential to inform and inspire community change and scholarship. 

• Contents

  As of July 23, 2024, the following articles have been accepted for inclusion in this special issue (and more will continue to be added to this list as they complete their journey through the journal's production process ahead of the official publication date of this special issue in Fall/Winter 2024):

  Research Articles

  “So much potential”: Latino/a Immigrant Emerging Adults, Legal Status, and Educational Participation

  • Lara M. Gonzalez, director of research and development at One Journey Together, LLC
  • Isabelle Ong Gaffney, bilingual clinical mental health counselor
  • Yesenia Mejia, post-doctoral scholar at the University of California at San Diego

  The Morris Intercultural Education Initiative: A Decade of Advancing Democracy through Community-Engaged Learning in the Rural Midwest

  • Cristina Ortiz, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota Morris
  • Tammy Berberi, Associate Professor of French, University of Minnesota Morris
  • Thomas Genova, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Minnesota Morris
  • Windy G. Roberts, Spanish Teaching Specialist, University of Minnesota Morris

  Research from the Field

  Building and Strengthening Communities through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey

  • Carla Villacis,  research coordinator in the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs
    at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Camden
  • Samuel Ross, graduate research assistant in the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Camden

  Building an Oral Repository of African Immigration Experiences in French: The Griotte Project’s reparative historiographic praxis through service-learning at the University of Central Arkansas

  • K. Adele Okoli, Associate Professor of French, University of Central Arkansas

  Exploring Best Practices and Tensions in Immigrant-Led Community-Based Social Service Planning Models for Immigrant and Refugee Communities

  • Sandeep K. Dhillon, doctoral student, Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University
  • Stefanie Machado, doctoral student, Department of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
  • Ryan Wai Shing Lai, masters student, Department of Urban Studies, Simon Fraser University
  • Kari Grain, special research associate, Community Engaged Research Initiative, Simon Fraser University

  Community Perspectives

  BIPOC Community Perspectives on Environmental Justice in Georgia

  • Stephanie Cho, Director, Democracy Lab South
  • LP Green, Environmental Justice Project Director, Democracy Lab South
  • Marianne Chung, founder, partner, strategist, and trainer for Reimagine Collective
  • Julia Lee-Hong, consultant for Reimagine Collective
  • Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Social Work and Human Services, Kennesaw State University

  Lessons from a Decade in West Hill: Community Perspective from the West Hill Refugee Welcome Center

  • Tim Doherty, Chief Executive Officer, West Hill Refugee Welcome Center
  • Matthew Klane, community co-coordinator of the West Hill Refugee Welcome Center

  Challenging Our Assumptions: Listening to Refugee and Immigrant Women’s Voices about Career Aspirations

  • Angela Warner, Immigrant and Refugee Economic Stability Director, Church of St. Vincent De Paul
  • Dahlia Herring,  is the co-chair of the Capital Region Refugee and Immigrant Roundtable
  • Lisa E. Baranik, Associate Professor of Management, University of Albany School of Business
  • Janice Coles, volunteer and board member of New York for Syrian Refugees

  Student Voices

  The U.S. Peace Corps: My Bridge from Practitioner to the Ph.D.

  • Nilofer Bharwani, doctoral student in the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development, Kennesaw State University
  • Thomas J. Hodges, postdoctoral fellow in the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development, Kennesaw State University

  Book Review

  Book Review for The Power of Morality in Movements: Civic Engagement in Climate Justice, Human Rights, and Democracy

  • David Brockway, masters student, Master of Science in International Policy Management, Kennesaw State University

  Stay tuned for additional articles to be added to this list as they complete their journey through the journal's production process!

• Acknowledgments

  In the creation of this special issue of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, we are indebted to many individuals and organizations, near and far, whose unwavering support has been instrumental in shaping this endeavor. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to our respective departments and colleges at Kennesaw State University where this special issue found fertile ground to flourish. The support from the the Department of Social Work and Human Services in the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services and the Department of Geography and Anthropology in the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences has been instrumental in nurturing our pursuits as community-engaged scholars and providing an environment conducive to applied academic exploration.

  We extend our deepest appreciation to sources of support within Kennesaw State University who encouraged the significance of this project and the production of a special issue with the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, including:

  • The Spring 2017 Community Engagement Faculty Learning Community through the KSU Office of Community Engagement (now the Office of Economic Development and Community Engagement in the Office of External Affairs), which Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. McDaniel participated in, provided encouragement to pursue further community-engaged research and publication. Through this Faculty Learning Community, KSU encouraged faculty to cultivate more community-engaged research and scholarship and specifically encouraged seeking publication in community-engaged journals, including the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, and others.
  • The Tenured Faculty Enhancement Program through the Kennesaw State University Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (in partnership with the Kennesaw State University Office of Research). The Tenured Faculty Enhancement Program at Kennesaw State University is a highly competitive program, funded by the President and Provost. Each faculty member who receives a TFEP Award goes through a rigorous multi-step application process in which the faculty member's department chair and college dean approves the project and its goals (in this case, the production of a special issue of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship). Proposals are then reviewed on a competitive basis by the Faculty Development Committee, a standing committee of the Faculty Senate. The committee makes recommendations to Academic Affairs. Subsequently, proposals are reviewed by the Provost, the Vice President for Research, and the Assistant Vice President for Faculty Affairs in an interactive process which might include consultation with the applicants to maximize the alignment of the proposals with the university R2 goals. As such, the multi-level support from all levels of KSU Administration not only facilitated the realization of the production of this special journal issue but also validated the importance of community-engaged research at KSU focused on understanding the evolving immigrant experiences, including in our own metro region of Atlanta in the southeastern United States, and its alignment with KSU's R2 Roadmap goal of cultivating interdisciplinary research with relevance and KSU's Carnegie Community Engagement classification.
• About the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship

  The Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (JCES) is a peer-reviewed international journal through which faculty, staff, students, and community partners disseminate scholarly works. JCES integrates teaching, research, and community engagement in all disciplines, addressing critical problems identified through a community-participatory process. The editorial board of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (JCES) invites the submission of manuscripts that relate to its mission: To provide a mechanism through which faculty, staff, and students of academic institutions and their community partners may disseminate scholarly works from all academic disciplines. A goal of the publication is to integrate teaching, research, and community engagement. All forms of writing, analysis, creative approaches, and methodologies are acceptable for the journal. The journal's editorial and advisory boards are comprised of highly respected community-engaged scholars, and have included faculty from Kennesaw State University. Established in 2008, JCES is an open access journal and is published by the University of Alabama Division of Community Affairs.

  JCES is an open access journal, which means that in support of a greater global exchange of knowledge, all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. 

  JCES is one of only two peer-reviewed journals sponsored by the Engagement Scholarship Consoritum (ESC) (the other journal is the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement). The Engagement Scholarship Consoritum is the premier organization that promotes engaged scholarship and mutually beneficial university-community partnerships with the ultimate goal of societal impact and improving lives. Its mission is to advance the capacity of member institutions—faculty, staff, students, and administrators—to promote engaged scholarship in partnership with communities to benefit society through meaningful impact.

Information about the special issue's original CFP from 2022 is found here.