CFMDE Research
CFMDE Faculty and Staff
Migration, Displacement, and Higher Education: Now What? (2023)
This open access volume, edited by former CFMDE faculty and staff members, offers an introduction to migration studies in 23 essays. The book features multiple contributions by CFMDE faculty, students, and community members on their groundbreaking global and regional partnerships as well as techniques for organizing similar initiatives in other higher educational contexts.
EuropeNow Collaborations
EuropeNow Issue 25: Forced Migration, Displacement, and the Liberal Arts (2019)
The issue features multiple contributions from CFMDE faculty such as “Polanyi Returns to Bennington: The Role of Liberal Arts Colleges at a Moment of ‘Great Transformation,’” John Hultgren (Bennington College) and “Rethinking Europe through Refugees, Populism, and ‘Crisis,’” Jeffrey Jurgens (Bard College).
EuropeNow Issue 30: Narration on the Move (2019)
This issue features multiple contributions from CFMDE faculty and students such as “From the Couch to the Community: The Emergence of Peer-to-Peer Therapy for Refugees in Switzerland,” Adam Brown (The New School For Social Research) and “Ellis Island: Disability and Nationalism in American Immigration History,” Lauranne Wolfe (Vassar College alumna).
EuropeNow Issue 36: Networks of Solidarity During Crises (2020)
This issue features multiple contributions from CFMDE faculty and students such as “Fostering a Revolution: Reproductive Work and the Spanish Republican Exile in Mexico,” Marcela Romero Rivera (Vassar College) and “Bard College Border Pedagogy: Experiential Learning, Syllabi, and a Model Unit on Encounters with Border Patrol,” Peter Rosenblum, Danielle Riou (Bard College), Hattie Karlstrom, Giselle Avila, and Lily Chavez (Bard College alumnae)
EuropeNow Issue 44: Displacement, Memory, and Design (2021)
This issue features multiple contributions from CFMDE faculty and students such as “Displacement, Migration, and Environmental Work in Malaysia,” Parthiban Muniandy (Sarah Lawrence College) and Valeria Bonatti (Sarah Lawrence College alumna) and “Remembering and Forgetting in Transit: The Interplay between Physical Spaces and Memory and Identity,” Adam Brown (The New School for Social Research) and Alexa L. Elias (Vassar College alumna).
Europe Now Issue 56: Roundtable on Forced Migration (2024)
This issue features multiple contributions from CFMDE faculty and students such as "Studying Migration in Switzerland and Malaysia: An Interview with Adam Brown and Parthiban Muniandy," Kirsten Wesselhoeft (Vassar College), Sam Cavagnolo and Janus Wong (Vassar College alumnae).
Research by Visiting Scholars
This short digital book was co-authored by Funmilola Ayeni and the students of her Spring 2020 intensive course “Orthodox vs. Traditional Medicine.” Ayeni is a microbiologist who was hosted through the Institute of International Education (IIE), the CFMDE, and Vassar College as a Visiting Assistant Professor from Spring 2020 through Spring 2021.
Digital Scholars Fellow Saba Hamzah is a poet-scholar, educator, and founder of the Yemeni Women Archive. The archive’s work has been highlighted in numerous news publications including a 2022 article in Al-Fanar Media and a 2023 article in The Media Line. During the summer of 2023, Hamzah partnered with a Vassar student researcher to continue to expand the archive and further its outreach.
Women of Ukraine (2023)
Published by Digital Scholars Fellow Anna Romandash, this book highlights experiences of women in Ukraine as soldiers, volunteers, refugees, and more. Romandash is an award winning Ukrainian journalist and media professional. Part of this project was completed with the support of a Vassar student researcher who was herself displaced from Ukraine.
Research by Students
This three part podcast, created by 9 Bennington students, explored the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the politics of immigration in the United States, Greece, Nepal, and India.
CFMDE Undergraduate Research Posters
This collection of posters by CFMDE undergraduates highlights significant independent research projects such as senior theses. These posters were exhibited at Reframing the Migrant Crisis: Law, Labor, and the State of Asylum in Uncertain Times, a symposium held at Bard College in April 2024.
(M)othertongues is a multilingual, multicultural student-run publication based at Bennington College which features pieces engaging with ideas of home, migration, belonging, boundaries, and more.
The publication was featured in a 2020 EuropeNow article, “Discovering (M)othertongues: A Reflection on the Conception of a Student-Run Publication,” Valeria Sibrian and Sarah Lore (Bennington College alumnae).
Asian American mental health during COVID-19: A call for task-sharing interventions (2021)
This article, published in Social Sciences & Medicine: Mental Health, was co-authored by Nicole Kormendi (Vassar College alumna) and Adam Brown (The New School for Social Research). Kormendi participated in the CFMDE’s “Forced Migration & Global Mental Health” program in Switzerland during the summer of 2019.
This article was co-authored by Alexa Elias (Vassar College alumna). Elias participated in the CFMDE’s “Forced Migration & Global Mental Health” in Switzerland during the summer of 2019. Inspired by her participation, Elias went on to co-author a research article with the programs director and pursue a career in global mental health.
The Bard Digital Commons expands access to the research of Bard students and faculty members, including Senior Projects. Many students have completed theses and projects on topics of migration and displacement. Highlighted projects supported by the CFMDE include “The Limits of Natural Boundaries: A Botanist’s Experience of Mexico’s Northern Border in the 1800s,” Hattie Wilder Karlstrom and “‘Can I Trust You?’ Observing Human Intervention at the Border,” Julia Marmor.
Digital Scholars Research Fellowship 2024 Summer Report
The Digital Scholars Program connected scholars who have experienced forced displacement but had established stable living situations with virtual teaching and research fellowships. Building on the integration of pedagogy and scholarship that is foundational to the liberal arts model, this program developed and supported a global network of 11 scholars for whom a more traditional in-person fellowship may have been impractical or altogether impossible. For more information on this program, view the report below.