Leadership
Kristin Kopp
Director of IMSI and Associate Professor of German
koppkr@missouri.edu
Bio: Cultural historian studying histories of migration into and out of German-speaking lands.
Don Joseph
Associate Director of IMSI and Assistant Professor of French
don.joseph@missouri.edu
Bio: Literary and cultural studies scholar investigating questions of migration, masculinity, identity and subjectivity in contemporary queer Mediterranean literature, film, and sociopolitical movements.
Steering Committee
Carla Cornette
Associate Teaching Professor of Italian, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Bio: Carla Cornette’s research focuses on narratives by AfroItalian women authors employing decolonial, Black Feminism, and adolescent identity formation theoretical lenses.
Matt Foulkes
Associate Professor of Geography
Bio: Research examines population geography, migration, and residential mobility, focusing on rural poverty, food insecurity, immigration, housing, and mixed-method approaches to development policy.
Viviana Goelkel
Assistant Teaching Professor of Film
Bio: Writer and filmmaker whose work explores the experiences of marginalized characters and uses filmmaking as a tool for social change.
Melissa Hauber-Özer
Assistant Professor of Qualitative Inquiry
Bio: Qualitative methodologist and applied linguist specializing in community-based, participatory approaches to research on migration and second language acquisition.
Don Joseph
Associate Director of IMSI and Assistant Professor of French
Bio: Literary and cultural studies scholar investigating questions of migration, masculinity, identity and subjectivity in contemporary queer Mediterranean literature, film, and sociopolitical movements.
Valerie Kaussen
Associate Professor of French
Bio: Valerie Kaussen studies Haitian literature, empire, and globalization, examining slavery, migration, and revolution, and researches post-earthquake Haiti, analyzing humanitarian technologies, visual culture, and lived experiences.
Kristin Kopp
Director of IMSI and Associate Professor of German
Bio: Cultural historian studying histories of migration into and out of German-speaking lands
Willie Mack
Assistant Professor of Black Studies
Bio: His research interests focus on race, immigration, the Cold War, and the carceral state in twentieth-century United States.
Linda Reeder
Professor of History
Bio: Linda Reeder specializes in modern Italian history. Her research interests focus on gender, sexuality, migration, national belonging, the history of Italian psychiatry, and the history of emotions.
Fellows
Abigail Adediran
Ph.D. Candidate in Communication
Bio: Abigail studies the intersection between immigration, health and African culture.
Edouard Bideau
MALT Student in French
Bio: Edouard is a master student in Language Teaching and a Graduate Instructor of Elementary French 3 at the University of Missouri. He is interested in movies and focuses on queerness and sexuality.
Charlotte Blair
MALT Student in French
Bio: Charlotte Blair is a graduate student in Language Teaching with an emphasis in French at the University of Missouri. Her research interests include gender, pedagogy, and sociolinguistics.
Denise Brown
Ph.D. Student in Political Science
Ernest Eshun
Ph.D. Student in Communication
Bio: Ernest studies the intersection between these two fields noting how people and or groups respond to disaster and public health-related messages.
Caleb Ezeh
Ph.D. Student in Political Science
Fateme Goudarzi
M.A. Student in French
Bio: Fateme Goudarzi is an M.A. student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in Francophone Studies at the University of Missouri, with research interests in literature, theatre, and foreign language pedagogy.
Aryanna Hyde
Ph.D. Candidate in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs
Bio: Aryanna studies migrant integration and political behavior in the Middle East and the United States. Her dissertation examines how interpersonal connections (“vitamin wow”) influence migrant political integration in Jordan.
Nelson Souopgoui Kamkuimo
M.A. Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in French
Bio: Nelson is a graduate student from Cameroon. He is interested in areas of study such as postcolonial and feminist studies, foreign language education, language contact and language variation.
Michael Limmer
Ph.D. Candidate in History
Bio: Michael is a social historian interested in migration and globalization. Currently researching American soldiers in Italy and the Mediterranean during and after World War II.
Laura Obubo
Doctoral Candidate in Language & Literacies for Social Transformation
Bio: Laura is a doctoral candidate with research and teaching interests in African Immigrant Youth identities, Critical Pedagogies, Decoloniality, African Diaspora Literature.
Adekunle Ogunleke
MFA Candidate in Painting
Bio: Adekunle's practice interrogates societal issues like migration, nativity, gender differences, class struggle, survival, oppression, and altruism. Ogunleke is a third year MFA candidate in Painting.
Ibrahim Adissa Owoo
MALT Student in French
Bio: Ibrahim is a passionate French language Graduate instructor and a researcher. His research focuses on best foreign languages teaching practices, linguistics and language interference, cross-cultural and immigration studies.
Medinat Oyedele
M.A. Student in French
Bio: Medinat Oyedele is a graduate researcher in French and sociolinguistics, specializing in multilingualism, language contact, and cross-cultural communication in transnational space.
Corinne Silvestre
MALT Student in French
Worlali Wormenor
MALT Student in French
Affiliated Scholars
Rasha Abousalem
Humanitarian Aid Worker
Bio: Research includes: the sexual exploitation of unaccompanied boys in refugee camps; Humanitarian challenges in Gaza; human rights; International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
Jambul Akkaziev
Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
Bio: Linguist teaching Russian language courses and student of US higher education policy. Currently studying the experiences of foreign-born educators in US academia.
Irma Arteaga
Associate Professor at the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs
Bio: Her research seeks to understand the consequences of early childhood investments over the life course.
Vanessa Awa
Instructor of French
Bio: My research explores Francophone African migration, language policy, and cultural networks, analyzing sociolinguistic variation and transnational identity.
Eileen Avery
Associate Professor of Sociology
Bio: Community sociologist currently studying residential change, rural and urban places, and health and wellbeing.
Stephen Christ
Associate Teaching Professor of Sociology
Bio: Development economist specializing in regional economic analysis and visualization. Currently working on creating a County Prosperity Index for Missouri, focusing on key economic and social indicators to support decision-making.
Emily Crawford-Rossi
Associate Professor of Education
Bio: K-12 education immigration policy, and school leadership expert studying educational opportunities for newcomer and immigrant-background students and families.
Beiyin Deng
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Bio: Beiyin Deng is an anthropologist of religion specializing in contemporary Buddhist material culture and economy within the contexts of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar, transnational Buddhist networks between China and Southeast Asia, and Burmese Buddhist diaspora community in the U.S.
Lisa M. Dorner
Director of Cambio Center and Professor of Education
Bio: Lisa Dorner's research centers on language policy and planning, educational policy implementation, and immigrant childhoods, especially children’s and families’ integration in “new” spaces.
Brendon Floyd
University of Missouri DPAA Research Partner Fellow
Bio: He is currently conducting historical research to aid the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in its mission “to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation.”
Aída Guhlincozzi
Assistant Professor of Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies
Bio: Community and health geographer researching health care access issues for vulnerable populations, including Latina immigrant women, and autistic children in the state of Missouri.
Haley Horstman
Associate Professor of Communication, Director of International Programs
Bio: Dr. Horstman researches how families communicate to make sense of their adversity and diversity. She grounds much of her work in narrative theorizing and methodology.
Omotayo Jemiluyi
Graduate Fellow
Bio: My research sits at the convergence of postcolonialism, African popular culture, gender, and migration and turns to music, film, and everyday narratives to explore gendered dynamics, racialization, and decolonial sensibilities in African and diasporic spaces.
Huichun Liang
Associate Teaching Professor of Chinese
Bio: Since I came to MU in the Fall of 2010, I have taught various Chinese Language and Literature courses. I received Purple Chalk Teaching Award of the Arts and Science for the year of 2016.
Rosalie Metro
Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, College of Education and Human Development
Bio: Rosalie Metro is a teacher-educator and anthropologist of education who analyzes conflicts that arise around history, identity, and language in the classroom, both in the US and in Southeast Asia.
Bradley Nichols
Assistant Professor of History
Bio: Historian of World War II, the Holocaust, and global mass violence, with an emphasis on forced migration and cultural genocide.
Natalia Filimonova
Visiting Professor and Economic Researcher
Bio: Development economist specializing in regional economic analysis and visualization. Currently working on creating a County Prosperity Index for Missouri, focusing on key economic and social indicators to support decision-making.
Martín Ruiz-Mendoza
Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish
Bio: Professor Ruiz-Mendoza studies contemporary Latin American cultural production, with an emphasis on violence and displacement in South and Central America.
Catherine Rymph
Dean of the Honors College and Professor of History
Bio: Dr. Rymph specializes in recent US history, especially policy history, and US women’s political history.
Roberta Tabanelli
Associate Professor of Italian
Bio: Areas of research include contemporary Italian cinema, transnational cinema, adaptatation studies, post-human theories.
Seungkwon You
Associate Teaching Professor of Korean Studies; Co-director of the Institute for Korean Studies
Bio: Political Scientist studying Korean Politics, Korean Diaspora, and US-Korea Relations. Currently consulting for the Gateway Korea Foundation.