Faculty Afoot

Congratulations to Dr. Roberta Spalter-Roth, faculty affiliate with the Institute for Immigration Research and Center for Social Science Research, for being named winner of the 2023 Stuart A. Rice Merit Award for Career Achievement from the District of Columbia Sociological Society (DCSS).

Blake R. Silver, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, received $1,947 from the American College Personnel Association for the project: "Layered Transitions: First-Generation College Seniors from Immigrant Families." With the support of collaborators Tharuna Kalaivanan, Fanni Farago, and Kellie Wilkerson, Mason doctoral students studying sociology, this project will explore the experiences of students who are both children of immigrants and the first in their families to pursue a bachelor’s degree. In-depth interviews will be analyzed to understand the resources FGC students from immigrant families bring to the senior-year transition and how these resources shape strategies for navigating the transition.

As organizations rush to stake their claim in the internet’s new frontier, many questions remain about what the metaverse is and isn’t. George Mason University Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute of Immigration Research, Jim Witte, joins other thought leaders including Meta VP for the Americas, Nada Stirratt, to discuss the metaverse and its relevance for business and social science.

Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) Director Dr. James Witte appeared on the latest episode of the JobMakers Podcast. Dr. Witte spoke to host Denzil Mohammed about the challenges of disseminating facts about U.S. immigration to the public in the midst of rampant misinformation and disinformation.