Working Alongside Our Neighbors
The Center for Migration, Displacement and Community Studies engages you with critical issues of social justice related to human flows at the local, national, and international levels.
Center-affiliated faculty work alongside you and community partners to promote scholarship, teaching, and community engagement in the field of Migration Studies across a wide range of disciplines.
Become service-orientated through community engagement opportunities. Work with the Center's long-term partnerships that provide support to local refugee and migrant service organizations and the communities that they serve in the Pittsburgh region.
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About the Center
Migration is a Universal Concern
Migration is a global phenomenon of significant magnitude, and we are currently living in a time of unprecedented human displacement.
Migration Studies encompasses the forced or voluntary movement of persons from one place to another. In the present age, transnational migration sparks controversy, giving rise to numerous xenophobic movements in the United States and in many European countries, along with political instability and violence around the world.
In response to the serious social, economic, and political consequences of migration and displacement, the Center supports research geared toward understanding these consequences. The Center is also concerned with how to support service organizations and migrant communities in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
CMDCS Mission
The mission of the Center is to foster scholarly inquiry and collaboration among Duquesne faculty, students, and community partners in order to:
- Advance scholarly understandings of migration, displacement, and the integration of migrants into their communities and the impact of current political developments or crises on those communities.
- Support scholarly research and publication in the areas of migration, displacement, and immigrant integration.
- Influence public attitudes toward migrant populations in the spirit of Catholic teaching.
- Encourage partnership and collaboration between faculty, students, and community partners who work with migrant populations.
- Uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants.
CMDCS Research & Faculty
Collaborate on research with fellow students, faculty, and community partners. Apply to our yearly research awards and contribute to work in Migration Studies. The Center and its faculty members support your research through awards, presentations, events, and mentorship.
Join the Migration Club . The Club initiates humanitarian outreach to our local community, and raises awareness on campus on various issues related to migration, displacement, and community building.
Research Awards
Apply to the Center's annual awards for faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students.
Research Support
- Hosting of Brown Bag lunches among faculty and students to discuss research projects in the area of migration, displacement and community studies
- Sponsorship of annual awards for faculty, undergraduate and graduate students
- Sponsorship of conference attendance for the presentation of research related to Migration Studies
- Hosting of an annual research symposium with an invited external guest speaker - Duquesne students and faculty serve as panelists
- Providing Research Assistantships to interested students for course credits
- Providing access to Community-engaged course opportunities
The Center at Work
Events sponsored and co-sponsored by the Center
Dr. Geiger 2026 Faculty Research Award Lecture
February 2026
Olena Boryshpolets, Human Rights Guest Speaker
November 2025
Dr. Vanessa Marie Fernández, Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month Guest Speaker
September 2025
What We Brought With Us - 2025
With presentation by Dr. Lydia Schmuck
Dr. Xia Chao Inaugural Faculty Award Lecture
April 2023
Dr. Garrett Inaugural Faculty Award Lecture
November 2022
After School Club
Students at ASC, Fall 2022
After School Club
Peer mentorship, Fall 2022
Dr. Schulze, Director of the Center
Faculty Research Award Lecture, Fall 2022
Dr. Vanja Pejic's Lecture
Dr. Pejic, Spring 2023
Dr. Vanja Pejic's Lecture
Psychology students with Dr. Pejic, Spring 2023
Dr. Xia 2023 Faculty Award Lecture
Spring 2024
Community Engagement Opportunities
Migration Club
Lead initiatives on campus and in the local community.
Work with Mentors
Meet with Center mentors at Brown Bag events to develop research.
Community Classroom
Engage with the community and gain credits.
Community Partners
Engage, volunteer, or work with the local community.
Community Partners
The Center coordinates engagement and research opportunities between students, faculty, and community partners.
- The After School Club aims to help immigrant and refugee high school students overcome educational and social barriers that hinder successful integration.
- The After School Club generates hands-on learning experiences for students about the challenges facing refugee communities. Duquesne students also gain research experience by designing and collecting assessment information.
- The program takes place on Duquesne University's campus and is a collaboration with partner agencies to engage students in activities focused on academic success, college and career readiness, celebration of culture and identity, and civic engagement.
- The program encourages social and cultural integration through near-peer mentoring by local university students and field trips.
- The After School Club was founded by ARYSE -- Pittsburgh's premier resource for immigrant and refugee youth.
Contact Dr. Jennie Schulze to get involved.Join the After School Club
- JFCS Refugee & Immigrant Services has worked with thousands of individuals and families over the years, helping them create new lives in our community after escaping unimaginable circumstances.
- From resettling newly-arriving refugees to connecting people with critical resources for acclimating to live in our country, JFCS is present through every step of their journey.
- Reading to Play, Playing to Read is a community-engaged project that combines the learning goals of two Spanish courses: MLSP 302W-CE Composition and Conversation and MLSP 280 Spanish for Health Professionals.
- Students from both courses collaborate to develop a 4-week program on health awareness and illness prevention culture for 5-8 year-old Hispanic children, who recently immigrated to the US.
- The Rita M. McGinley Psychology Clinic is the primary training facility for doctoral students in clinical psychology.
- The Clinic's mission is to provide supervised training experience for doctoral students, while offering affordable, professional clinical services to the Duquesne community and the general public.
- The Clinic provides individual, couples, family, and group psychotherapy as well as psychological assessment.
- Open Field helps immigrant youth through the love of soccer.
- The mission is to improve the lives and futures of youth through sport.
- Open Field's sport-based programming creates a safe space for youth to play and learn, with an educational topic connected to every practice and game.
- Youth participants take on leadership roles as coaches, referees, and mentors to their peers.
To get involved, contact Chloe Kinnahan or Justin Foranzo.Discover Open Field
Research Opportunities
Brown Bags
Research related to the mission of the Center can gain support via the Center's Brown Bag Lunches. A Brown Bag Lunch is a causal setting where student researchers can share their projects for feedback and advice from professors who work in related topics.
Reach%20out%20to%20us with a brief explanation of your current research or research interests, and any professors you would particularly like to work with, and we can organize a Brown Bag lunch for your research interests.
Past Winners
2025
Outstanding Research Award
University-School Partnerships and Community Capital in East Allegheny
Jennica Henry, Rocio Garzon, Matthew Theodros & Katelyn Ganter
2024
Outstanding Research Award
Pedagogy to Practice: Addressing the Differential Needs of At-Risk Gen-Z Students in Secondary and Post-Secondary Education
Fatima Demlak & Maria Ortiz
2023
Outstanding Research Award
Against All Odds: Psychosocial Interventions for Homeless Youth
Hannah Davis, Sarah Foster, & Lauren Rose
Honorable Mention
Integrating Data to Recognize Community Need Across Pennsylvania
Valerie Koester
2022
Outstanding Research Award
No Human is Illegal: The study of Anti-Homeless and Hostile Architecture
Jason Minicozzi
Honorable Mention
Reevaluating the causes of Destruction of the Lower Hill
Avishek Acharya
The Misrepresentation of Native Americans in Textbooks in the United States
Haley Oroho
Past Winners
2025
Award for Graduate Research
Communicating Environmental Risk: Lessons from Flint, Love Canal, and PFAS Contamination
Marie Navarro Sullivan
Honorable Mention
Assessing the Health Status, Health Needs, and Healthcare Access of Venezuelan Migrants in Host Countries: An Integrative Review
Monica Naumann
2024
Award for Graduate Research
Cor Unum Gardens: The Validation and Upscale Development of Hydroponic Community Gardens
Burton Carbino
Honorable Mention
Mobile Roots: The Case for Trailer Park Preservation
Dalena Collins
2023
Award for Graduate Research
The Beliefs, Values, and Experiences of Health in Transgender Youth Experiencing Homelessness
Mary Poskin
Honorable Mention
A Peculiar Home: A Phenomenology of Place
Gabriela Sanchez
2022
Award for Graduate Research
Historical Memory and Identity in the United Farm Workers
Sarah Babcock
Honorable Mention
Trauma-Informed Teaching
Heather Roesinger
Faculty Research Award
The Faculty Research Award 2026-2027 is currently closed for submissions.
Please review The Faculty Research Award guidelines for application details. Updates for the 2027-2028 academic year will be posted soon.
Past Winners
2025
Dr. Min Geiger
Assistant Professor of Management
Palumbo-Donahue School of Business | Duquesne University
"Nonnative English Speakers in the Workplace: Past, Present, and Future"
Faculty Award Lecture: 10th February 2026
2024
Dr. Lucía Osa-Melero
Associate Professor & Director of the Center for Hispanic Studies
Dr. Carmen Alicia Martínez
Visiting Associate Professor of Spanish World Languages & Cultures
Second Language Vocabulary Learning in a Mixed-Proficiency Community-Engaged Program: Designing Vocabulary Instruction for College Students
Faculty Award Lecture: 18th February 2025
2023
Dr. Xia Chao
Associate Professor of Language and Literacy Education
"I Walk in Language Circles": Transnational-Translocal Entanglements of a Refugee-Background Somali-Bantu's Multilingual Identity
Faculty Award Lecture : 25th January 2024
2022
Dr. Erik Garrett
Associate Professor of Communication & Rhetorical Studies
Strangeness of the Strange: Strangeness and Proximity in Shutz, Husserl, and Levinas
Faculty Award Lecture : 14th November 2022Study
Courses related to studies of migration, displacement and community engagement.
COMM 114 Exploring Intercultural Communication (3 Credits)
COMM 307 Public Advocacy (3 Credits)
ENGL 233 Travel Narratives (3 Credits)
ENGL 322 World Literatures (3 Credits)
HIST 348 History of Human Trafficking in a Global Context (3 Credits)
IRST 275 The Jewish Experience in America (3 Credits)
MLSP 280 Spanish for Healthcare Professionals (3 Credits)
PHBA 423 Perspective in Global Health (3 Credits)
POSC 116 Current Challenges for Liberal Democracies (3 Credits)
POSC 303 Politics of Immigration (3 Credits)
POSC 348 Humanitarian Intervention (3 Credits)
PSYCH 205 Psychology of Human Experience (3 Credits)
PSYC 240W Social Psychology (3 Credits)
PSYCH 354 Psychology of Social/Cultural Diversity (3 Credits)
PSYCH 480 Psychology and Community Engagement (3 Credits)
SOCI 208 Racial and Ethnic Groups (3 Credits)
OCCT 560 Community and Population Health (3 Credits)
OCCT 565 Community and Population Programing (3 Credits)
Affiliated Faculty
The Center and its 15+ affiliated faculty members support your research through awards, presentations, events, and mentorship.
Dr. James Bailey
Associate Professor, Theology Department Chair
Dr. Gerald Boodoo
Associate Professor of Theology, Director of the Center for African Studies
Dr. Erik Garrett
Associate Professor of Communication & Rhetorical Studies
Dr. Jennie Schulze
Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Migration, Displacement and Community Studies
Dr. John Dwyer
Associate Professor of History
Dr. Elizabeth Fein
Associate Professor of Psychology
Dr. Jessie Goicoechea
Director, Rita M. McGinley Psychology Clinic, Director of Clinical Training, and Associate Professor of Psychology
Dr. Leswin Laubscher
Associate Professor of Psychology and Department Chair
Dr. Emad Mirmotahari
Associate Professor of English
Dr. Lucía Osa-Melero
Associate Professor of Modern Languages
Dr. Matthew Schneirov
Associate Professor of Sociology and Department Chair
Dr. Andrew Simpson
Associate Professor of History, Internship Coordinator
Dr. Anita Zuberi
Associate Professor of Sociology
Dr. Jessica Devido
Associate Professor of Nursing
Let's get in touch.
CMDCS Office
