Faculty Projects & Opportunities
DU CIPR cultivates and showcases research and creative work on migration that provides opportunities for students, builds bridges across campus, offers analysis to policy-makers, and collaborates directly with community partners.
CIPR Funded Projects & Opportunities
Once per year, CIPR offers competitive seed grants for faculty called Semillas Grants intended to foster transformative projects that connect faculty across units, involve students, and collaborate directly with community partners. We prioritize projects that center community-driven needs and/or address one of our three pillars related to migration.
Calls for grant proposals are disseminated every Fall quarter. Although grant recipients must be full-time DU faculty, community partners are encouraged to email us with requests and we will identify potential collaborators based on the nature of the project.
Highlighted Projects
Documenting Essential Voices/ Hear, Allá, Presente
This project tells stories from the immigrant community in Colorado. The project sent bilingual and heritage Spanish-speaking DU students into the community as interns and trained them to conduct and collect oral history narratives with Spanish-speaking residents from across Colorado in partnership with History Colorado.
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The DU Just Wages Project
Since 2013, Galemba has been training graduate students through her Qualitative Research Methods course and as research assistants to document and take action against wage theft and its disproportionate impact on Latino immigrant workers, such as day laborers. Nearly 100 DU students have participated by conducting ethnographic fieldwork and surveys at day labor hiring sites, interviewing employers, attorneys, and advocates, and engaging in labor rights outreach and activism alongside workers. This work is in partnership with Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores.
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Music Across Borders: Bridging Latinx Communities in DU and Denver
The Music Across Borders project (MAB) hosted Mr. Ramón Gutiérrez Hernández, a prominent Son Jarocho musician from southern Veracruz, Mexico, as an initiative to connect DU students with the organization Su Teatro: Cultural and Performing Arts Center, providing an enriching learning experience inside and outside the classroom.
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Other Projects
Korbel Asylum Project
- Affiliates: Oliver Kaplan, Josef Korbel School
- About: Collaboration with pro-bono attorneys to train students to write country conditions reports to assist with asylum cases. By producing country-conditions reports, KAP provides a crucial service to asylum seekers and pro bono attorneys as well as practical training for students.
- Learn more about the project, student opportunities, and ways for attorneys to partner here.
Due Process and the Dedicated Docket
- Affiliates: Dr. Rebecca Galemba (Josef Korbel School) and Dr. Lisa Martinez (Sociology)
- About: Collaboration with Colorado Asylum Center and Innovation Law Lab to document due process violations on the expedited dedicated docket for asylum seekers in Denver immigration court.
Climate and Migration in Guatemala and Honduras
- Affiliates: Dr. Rebecca Galemba (Josef Korbel School), Dr. Michelle Moran-Taylor (Geography), Jesse Acevedo (Political Science), in addition to non-center DU investigators
- About: Pilot fieldwork to assess the intersections between migration, climate, and local perceptions in diverse political ecological zones in Honduras and Guatemala
The Human Trafficking Center
- Affiliate: Claude D’Estree (Josef Korbel School)
- About: Since 2002, the Human Trafficking Center (HTC), previously housed in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, trained students in human trafficking law, advocacy, and research to provide policy-relevant analysis in collaboration with regional stakeholders and legislators.
Highlighted & Recent Faculty Publications
Semillas Awardees
(2022-2023)
- Carlos Jimenez Jr. *Media, Film, & Journalism) and Lina Reznicek-Parrado (Spanish) for Documenting Essential Voices for Social Justice
- Partners: History Colorado, Casa de Paz, Latino Community Foundation, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), Project Protect Food Systems Workers, Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, and Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains (Year 2)
- Chen Reis and Oliver Kaplan. “From Clients to Partners: How can IRC Denver Better Meet the Needs of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers with Multiply-Marginalized Identities?”
- Partner: International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- Gwen Mitchell (GSPP) and Liz Jordan (Sturm College of Law). “Developing a Multidisciplinary Collective for Migrants in Immigration Proceedings.” Joint workshop training sessions for law students in the DU Immigration Law and Policy Clinic and psychology students in the Trauma and Disaster Recovery Clinic working in immigration proceedings.
- Monica Gutierrez (GSSW). “Mapeando mi Comunidad/Mapping my Community” collaboration with Valverde neighborhood.
(2021-2022)
- City of Denver Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (DOIRA) in coordination with Dr. Rebecca Galemba (Josef Korbel School). “Does Language Justice Work?” to support development of a city language access program.
- Led by DOIRA employee and DU alumnus, Claudia Castillo.
- Carlos Jimenez Jr. (Media, Film, & Journalism) and Lina Reznicek-Parrado (Spanish) for Documenting Essential Voices for Social Justice.
- Partners: History Colorado, Casa de Paz, Latino Community Foundation, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), Project Protect Food Systems Workers, Colorado Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association, and Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains (Year 1)
- Veronica Pacheco (IRISE postdoctoral fellow). “Music Across Borders: Bridging Latinx communities in DU and Denver” to bring son Jarocho workshops and music and art gatherings
- Partner: Su Teatro: Cultural and Performing Arts Center
- Julia Roncoroni (Morgridge) and Deb Ortega (GSSW). “Impact of COVID-19 on Latinx Immigrants in Colorado”
- Partner: Latino Community Foundation of Colorado