The college is pleased to announce the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, an initiative focused on conducting, supporting, and promoting humanistic and interdisciplinary research on issues of migration and displacement.

Katrina Powell, a professor in Department of English, serves as the center’s founding director. Additional founding members are Rebecca Hester, an assistant professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society; Georgeta Pourchot, coordinator of the International Refugee Research Project, based in Alexandria, Virginia; and Brett Shadle, professor and chair of the Department of History; each fills a leadership role as well, namely associate director of education, associate director of international initiatives, and associate director of outreach, respectively.

The center also administers the Virginia Consortium on Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, a statewide organization established in 2019 to understand issues facing community members as they transition to living in Virginia.