KSU Professors Publish Special Issue in Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship
Special Issue on Immigration and Immigrant Community Engagement in Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, Guest Edited by Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez and Paul N. McDaniel
KENNESAW, Ga. (Feb 3, 2025) — Kennesaw State University researchers Dr. Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Social Work and Human Services in the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Paul N. McDaniel, Associate Professor of Geography in the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences, recently published their guest edited Special Issue on Immigration and Immigrant Community Engagement in the peer-reviewed Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship.
This special issue of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (vol. 17, no. 3), which was published on January 20, 2025, 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, the special issue editors Drs. Rodriguez and McDaniel have curated a collection of articles—including research articles, research from the field essays, community perspectives, student voices, book reviews, and artwork—that align with the JCES’s mission and 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 community engagement.
Immigration and the immigrant experience are inextricably tied to the past, present, and future of the United States and Canada. Native Peoples, established 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 that has the potential to inform and inspire community change and scholarship.
Access the open access full text of the special issue here. The Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 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 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 one of only two peer-reviewed journals sponsored by the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) (the other journal is the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement). The Engagement Scholarship Consortium, of which Kennesaw State University is an institutional member, 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.
The special issue was made possible in part through sources of support within Kennesaw State University that encouraged and uplifted the significance of this project. These include the Spring 2017 Community Engagement Faculty Learning Community (in which both Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. McDaniel participated) through the KSU Office of Community Engagement (now the Office of Economic Development and Community Engagement in the Office of External Affairs) and a Spring 2023 Tenured Faculty Enhancement Program award to Dr. Rodriguez, a highly competitive program funded by the President and Provost and administered through the Kennesaw State University Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (in partnership with the Kennesaw State University Office of Research). The multiple levels of support from Kennesaw State not only facilitated the realization of this special issue but also validated the importance of interdisciplinary community engaged scholarship.
This special issue is the latest example of scholarship, along with Dr. McDaniel and Dr. Rodriguez’s 2024 edited book publication, Integration and Receptivity in Immigrant Gateway Metro Regions in the United States, that places Kennesaw State University at the forefront of research on immigrant integration in the U.S. The research presented in the special issue provides a foundation for further exploration of the stories and experiences of immigrants and refugees in the 21st century and is an example of work aligning with the mission of the Department of Geography and Anthropology and the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences to prepare students with a liberal arts education that empowers them to understand the human condition, to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and to become contributing citizens in a global society along with Kennesaw State University’s goal to promote interdisciplinary research with relevance and conduct innovative research that advances society.
