Dr. Graziella Pagliarulo McCarron is an Associate Professor of Leadership Studies as well as a core faculty member of the Higher Education Program in the School of Integrative Studies at George Mason University and is a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR).
Personal Background and Interest in Immigration Research
For Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron, personal background and research interests are intricately intertwined:
I am a first-generation college student and the only and eldest daughter of immigrant parents who came from a small town in southern Italy and settled in the United States. I was born here [in the United States], but, given how deeply connected my parents were to their native homeland through family, ways of being, language, and values, I grew up with a foot in each culture. These beginnings––for which I am eternally grateful––shaped my identity significantly, amplified how I paid attention to the world around me––particularly with respect to education––and would eventually inform my positionality as a scholar, teacher, and practitioner.
The experience of navigating college as a first-generation student of immigrant origin continues to motivate and guide Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron’s research interests on “belonging, mattering, access, and equity for first-generation learners, with a focus on learners of immigrant origin.” Her research centers questions that meet at the intersection of student development and leadership work:
- What is belonging and how do we cultivate it in curricular and co-curricular spaces?
- What do we mean by mattering and how do we create a climate of mattering?
- How do we think about leadership pedagogy in a way that is inclusive of student stories?
- How are we teaching in a way that enables students to see themselves in the material?
Research Spotlight: Supporting College Students of Immigrant Origin
Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron’s most recent book is a volume co-edited together with Dr. Blake Silver, Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason and also a Faculty Affiliate of the IIR. Supporting College Students of Immigrant Origin: New Insights from Research, Policy, and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2024) is a “practical volume” that can be used “as a way to guide practice around both first-generation scholars and scholars of immigrant origin but also all at the intersections.” The book “dismantles some of the assumptions and biases you may have when you hear ‘immigrant origin’ and even interrogates the language – and power of language in – defining ‘immigrant origin.’”
Other Research on Student Narratives and Experiences
Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron’s other current research projects also center learner narratives and experiences in higher education and beyond. Two forthcoming publications will share some of these narratives––one from the lens of work and career navigation and the other from the perspective of student activism and holism.
The first project, Where We Got Started: Narratives of the Journey to First Jobs and Career (From Lived Experiences to Practical Implications), together with Dr. Steven Zhou, a faculty member in Mason’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology department and nonprofit management consultant, is forthcoming with Cambridge Press. It will include stories from “dozens of individuals representing a wide range in careers and how they found their way from their first job to where they are now. The goal of the book is to help create a different story around what it means to be ‘career ready’ and to interrogate the idea there is only one pathway to 'success'.” The book pays special attention to career development theory in the context of supporting marginalized and underserved populations.
The second project is a collaborative book with Dr. Cher Chen (School of Integrative Studies), Dr. Julie Owen (School of Integrative Studies), and Dr. Steve Grande (James Madison University), titled Activism, Burnout, and Community: The Stories of Student Activists, and is forthcoming with Routledge Press. This book––scaffolded by robust qualitative data sharing the voices of over 100 college student activists––explores student activists’ motivations, challenges, and intersections with community. One aim of the book is to offer pathways for holistic student development.
Student Learning and Opportunities for Research at Mason
Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron describes teaching as “an honor.” She teaches primarily in the leadership studies program but also serves as core faculty in the higher education program at Mason.
In the leadership studies program, Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron’s favorite classes to teach are Ethics and Leadership (INTS 404) and Leadership and Organizational Problem-Solving (INTS 451/575). Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron explains:
Leadership work, for me, is about partnering with students to sort out who we are, what matters to us, and how we can foster positive change in our communities and/or in the larger global context.
In these classes, students engage in meaningful discussions, challenge themselves to stretch, and collaborate on real-world projects.
With respect to the higher education program, Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron has been delighted to teach Student Development Theory (HE 646). Student Development Theory is a master’s level course that looks at “how students learn to learn and how to engage students in a way that’s meaningful in different service contexts, whether in an advising office or in a classroom.”
Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron highlights the OSCAR Office at George Mason University as a valuable resource for students interested in research as a way to “connect students’ aspirations of doing research with actually making it happen and offering pathways to ease potential barriers. That’s where OSCAR is so special and important.”
She also encourages students interested in research to “never be afraid to start a conversation” with faculty to learn about the work they are doing and how one might get involved: “There are so many generous, wonderful people across campus…who are very willing to engage with students.” At the same time, she challenges faculty to “continue to take that important step of inviting students into your work…it’s an opportunity to serve and support student learning and to serve and support the Mason mission.”
Immigration: “A Conversation for All of Us”
Dr. Pagliarulo McCarron highlights that strength of interdisciplinarity and collaboration in advancing research, policy, and support for immigrants and those of immigrant origin – on campus and beyond:
From a teaching, learning, researching perspective, no one person or group need work in isolation to support folks of immigrant origin …This is a space for connection and collaboration…The more holistically we can look across functions, disciplines, and broader communities, [the more we see] that there is opportunity to serve if we act in community with each other and with the communities we aim to support…this is a conversation for all of us.
July 23, 2024