The $670,000 grant from the Massachusetts-based Cummings Foundation will fund Fordham’s Initiative on Migrants, Migration, and Human Dignity, which was created as a pilot program in 2022 with a $200,000 grant from Cummings. 

The professors hope to cultivate a new generation of student leaders interested in working with migrants with the new grant, which was received this month and covers a period of three years. It will be used to fund opportunities for students, faculty, and staff in the practice of accompaniment with migrant communities—at the Mexico-U.S. border, in the New York metropolitan area, and at Fordham itself.

Students and staff will participate in immersive workshops on current immigration issues; trips to the U.S./Mexico border; and internships with organizations like the binational Catholic organization Kino Border Initiative, a Jesuit organization; the Harlem-based LSA (Little Sisters of the Assumption) Family Health Service, and the Center for Migration Studies.

Bringing Student Advocates Together 

Carey Kasten, Ph.D., a professor of Spanish who is one of the faculty members spearheading the initiative, said a big focus will be on making it easier for students with shared interests in immigration to work together.

“We want to create a mechanism that will bring these students together in dialogue to share what they’ve learned, gain more knowledge, and figure out what they want to do in the advocacy space with their ideas.”

As President Donald Trump takes steps to deport undocumented migrants, Kasten said the need for this work remains critical. Migrant communities will still need services such as know-your-rights workshops and help securing shelter, food, and medicine— services that the initiative’s partner organizations provide.

Immigrants also bring talents and skills, not just needs, said political science professor Sarah Lockhart, one of the faculty members involved in the project. “So the initiative emphasizes the importance of Fordham community members walking with them through challenges and triumphs and learning from each other,” she said, noting that this involves building sustainable relationships with immigrant communities that will last for years to come.

“We all know that this work isn’t going to go away. The issues aren’t going to go away; it’s just the demands that shift and change,” Kasten said.

Faculty from Many Disciplines 

One reflection of the group’s ambitions is the expansion of its leadership. When the group first formed in 2022, Kasten was joined by theology professors Leo Guardado and Jim McCartin. The group now includes professors from the fields of communications (Gregory Donovan), political science (Annika Hinze and Lockart), and natural science (Alma Rodenas-Ruano).

The interdisciplinary nature of the initiative is what drew Rodenas-Ruano to join.

“Everyone has a unique perspective that adds to and enriches accompaniment,” she said. “The idea is to have students who have different majors and different experiences contribute in a way that is more holistic.”

The organizers are hopeful that the initiative will serve as a model in migration accompaniment for Jesuit institutions across the United States. The group currently collaborates with the Ignatian Solidarity Network and Jesuit Refugee Service. 

“Standing in solidarity with people is a deep part of the Jesuit mission,” Kasten said.

The International Symposium on Digital Scholarship took place from June 3 to 5 at Birkbeck College and Fordham’s London Centre. Sponsored by the University’s Office of Research, it featured a mix of lectures, workshops, and formal and informal gatherings geared toward furthering research opportunities and international collaborations.

If last year’s gathering illustrated how cross-border collaboration is key to tackling vexing challenges of our time, the London gathering showed how, in the digital realm, no one discipline can go it alone.

Bringing Technology and Scholarship Together

“Digital scholarship is notable for its interdisciplinary nature, since it involves not only IT and computer science, but also the humanities, social sciences, and schools of education,” said Maryanne Kowaleski, Ph.D., the academic coordinator for the digital symposium.

The Joseph Fitzpatrick S.J. Distinguished Professor of History and Medieval Studies and curator of Fordham’s Medieval Sources Bibliography, Kowaleski has deep connections to both London and the digital humanities.

In London, she delivered a keynote address, “Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: Acknowledging Collaborative Work in Digital Scholarship Projects.” She also presented a research project that touches on both London and the digital realm, titled “Prosopography, Database Design, and Linked Data in the Medieval Londoners Project.”

The project is a collaboration with Katherina Fostano, visual resources coordinator in the department of Art History, and Kowaleski said it was notable that Fostano presented at the conference, as did Elizabeth Cornell, Ph.D., director of communications at Fordham’s department of information technology. Adding professional staff such as librarians and graduate students to the mix, was key to the conference’s success, she said.

“One of the things that my research shows, and that I have experienced, is how crucial librarians are to digital efforts now. I’m grateful that Fordham has included them in this program,” she said.

London and New York, Working as a Team

Representing the Graduate School of Education (GSE), Professor of Childhood Special Education Su-Je Cho, Ph.D, and doctoral student Kathleen Doyle jointly presented “Using a Digital Learning Platform to Increase Levels of Evidence-Based Practices in Global Teacher Education Programs.” It detailed Project REACH, a U.S. Department of Education-funded initiative that makes widely available the best evidence-based practices for training prospective teachers.

George Magoulas, Ph.D., Alex Poulovassilis, Ph.D., and Andrea Cali, Ph.D., members of Birkbeck College’s Knowledge Lab, helped them collect and analyze data through the website.

Working with a partner in London made sense for this project, Cho said, because one of her goals is for Project REACH to get more use internationally. She, Doyle, and the GSE’s Alesia Moldavan, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics education, will collaborate with Christine Edwards-Leis, Ph.D., associate dean of research, and enterprise and doctoral student Jennifer Murray from St. Mary’s College in London on a new endeavor geared toward student teachers’ mental health. Once finished, it will be incorporated into Project REACH.

“The student teaching experience is very stressful, because it’s not their own classroom they have to student teach in. It’s someone else’s classroom. By providing this kind of platform, they can also share their concerns and knowledge and frustrations with the students overseas,” she said.

For Doyle, the trip was an opportunity to see how colleagues from other disciplines assemble collaborative teams.

“I really appreciated learning across the fields. Being in the Graduate School of Education, I’ve been mainly focused on that field. It was refreshing to hear about the other ways digital scholarship is utilized in other disciplines,” she said.

Urban Challenges That Cross Borders

Gregory T. Donovan, Ph.D., assistant professor of communication and media studies, presented “Keeping Place in ‘Smart’ Cities: Situating the Settlement House as a Means of Knowing and Belonging in the Informational City.” The project, which he is developing with the assistance of Melissa Butcher, Ph.D., reader in social and cultural geography at Birkbeck College, will highlight the efforts of New York City’s Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center and London’s Toynbee Hall.

The project will focus on the “settlement house” model of community center that was founded a century ago to confront segregation and displacement and promote belonging.

“New York City and London are examples of global cities that are going through significant technological change, both in terms of the cities themselves becoming more digitized as well as the economy and the kinds of jobs and the kinds of education that’s being elevated. With that comes all kinds of difficult changes and gentrification that causes displacement,” said Donovan, who is also organizing November symposium at Fordham called Mapping (in)justice.

“We’re going to look at how we might network [Lincoln Square and Toynbee] through digital technology and think about how they’re managing to keep pace in these communities that are often being displaced in this kind of digital gentrification.”