Institute for Immigration Research Newsletter

July 2026

From the Director

Dear Friends of the IIR,

IIR’s mission to generate and amplify research on immigrants and immigration in the United States has never been more important. Reflecting on my first ten months as IIR’s Director, I couldn’t be prouder of our interdisciplinary staff’s incredible work and all that we have accomplished toward this objective. It has been a busy year full of working on existing and new projects, strategizing how to increase our impact, and hosting events.

Our work focuses on three priorities: objective research, storytelling and arts, and outreach and education. We directed much of our energy this year to increasing our impact by scaling up our signature Immigration Research on Demand (iDod) project and launching Leaving and Belonging, our new arts, culture, and storytelling initiative.

The iDod project delivers comprehensive geospatial and statistical data into the hands of policy makers, civic planners, educators, non-profits, business owners, and the general public to enhance informed decision making and program development. We are currently strategizing how to increase iDod’s reach and impact through outreach and marketing. For example, in addition to responding to requests for customized data, the IIR is now distributing fact sheets to elected officials in Virginia biannually to inform policymaking. We are also collaborating with immigrant-serving organizations to provide data for their grant writing and program development.

The launch of our new arts, culture, and storytelling pillar culminated in the “Leaving and Belonging: Making an Impact on Immigration and Displacement through Arts, Culture, and Storytelling” symposium. This two-day conference brought together over 70 researchers and practitioners and officially established the IIR as a hub for those working at the intersection of arts and migration. Scholars, students, artists, community organizers, leaders of nonprofits and NGOs, librarians, museum workers, civic planners, legal professionals, and medical practitioners gave papers, led workshops, presented films, performed, networked, and shared best practices. The enthusiastic feedback of attendees confirmed that this initiative fills a much-needed gap, as expressed by one participant:

This symposium was innovative and cutting-edge because it brought together scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to advance work on the relevance of storytelling for creating change on immigration, migration, rights, and belonging. I found it very inspiring and illuminating: it was a model gathering that exemplifies the potential of public humanities for contributing to the greater good on immigration issues in and beyond higher education.

Following the symposium—as a next step to creating IIR as the national hub for arts, storytelling, and migration—the IIR created an arts and migration listserv to facilitate communication, share best practices, and foster collaboration. Next year, we will continue to develop the hub, explore ways of disseminating the content of the symposium to various audiences, and fundraise to host the next symposium, which we hope will become an annual signature event. Stay tuned for next steps!

Also under the arts and storytelling umbrella, IIR post-doc Dr. Ezgi Benli-Garcia (ethnomusicology) collaborated with Graduate Assistant Aditi Goel (Communications doctoral student) and Christophe Vitello (Anthropology undergraduate student) to produce the Leaving and Belonging Digital Stories project. IIR staff interviewed George Mason students and produced short pieces that highlight the universality of leaving someplace familiar and trying to adapt to a new environment. Please visit IIR’s website and social media accounts to hear these stories directly from Mason students themselves!

The Immigrant Story Project is a longstanding initiative that exemplifies IIR’s unique integration of quantitative data and storytelling. The project sheds light on immigrant populations by producing personal stories of immigration combined with iDod fact sheets. This year’s focus explored immigrant leaders and entrepreneurs. In partnership with the Immigrant Learning Center, we featured Colette A.M. Phillips and Luiz Thomaz DaCosta, the winners of the 2025 Barry M. Portnoy Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards. We also collaborated with Welcoming America and the City of Aurora, Colorado to provide quantitative and qualitative data about immigrants in Aurora. I encourage you to read the stories about three Aurora business owners Marcelo Alvariza, Jambo Merhatsedek Woldyohannis, and K.C. Lee. From the Washington D.C. region, we offer the story of Egyptian documentary producer and director Dina Abou Zeid.

To further our outreach and education goals, we are pleased to announce a valuable new resource for educators, scholars, and the general public: The Immigrants & America 250: Data, Stories, and Policy across United States History. A product of the IIR and Immigrant Learning Center partnership designed by the George Mason’s CHSSWeb team, this online, interactive historical digital timeline features immigration data, significant immigration policies, and notable immigrants who made lasting contributions to the United States.

As always, we enjoyed a lively year of public-facing events. We hosted a meet-and-greet for students in the fall followed by a workshop for students about how to do ethical research in the spring. We hosted a book talk panel discussion with faculty who have published recent books on immigration. We moderated talks with artists in collaboration with George Mason’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts and Fall for the Book for the New American Voices Award. We partnered with the Immigrant Learning Center for a book talk at Boston’s West End Museum featuring the 2025 New American Voices award winner Shubha Sunder.

In collaboration with colleagues in the greater Washington D.C. area, the IIR has been a leader in creating the DMV Immigration Research Network. This emerging network brings together people working on immigrant-related research in the DMV to share information, foster collaboration, and support and reinforce one another’s work. Anyone interested in joining should send an email to me at iir@gmu.edu.

It has been a busy and gratifying first year as director! The summer will be full of planning and strategizing how to increase our impact in the years to come.

Sincerely,

Lisa Gilman, PhD

Director, Institute for Immigration Research

Professor, Folklore and English

Featured Research

Immigration Data on Demand (iDod)

One of the IIR's signature projects, Immigration Data on Demand (iDod), surpassed completing 500 iDod fact sheets since the project began in 2015.

Leaving and Belonging Digital Stories

During the 2025–2026 academic year, the IIR launched Leaving and Belonging, a digital storytelling initiative developed as part of its arts, culture, and storytelling initiative. This project complements the IIR’s broader mission to generate and amplify relevant research on immigrants and immigration to the United States by pairing research on migration with community engagement, using storytelling to amplify personal narratives and highlight lived experiences.

2026 Immigrant Stories: Leaders and Entrepreneurs

The Immigrant Stories Project integrates quantitative data with in-depth interviews with immigrants living in the United States to highlight the lived experiences behind the numbers. This mixed methods approach provides both a comprehensive picture of the realities faced by immigrants and a broader view of immigrants’ vital economic and societal contributions to the communities’ in which they work and live and to United States as a whole. This year, the IIR focused on immigrant entrepreneurs and leaders in three regions: Boston, Massachusetts, Aurora, Colorado, and Washington D.C.

Immigrants & America 250: Data, Stories, and Policy across United States History

As the United States commemorates its 250th anniversary, the IIR collaborated with the Immigrant Learning Center, the George Mason University CHSSWeb team, and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, to create an interactive digital timeline featuring U.S. population data, key immigration policies, and notable immigrants who made lasting contributions to the United States. This timeline will showcase how immigrants have contributed to every aspect of life in the United States and have been part of the American story. By pairing data with personal narratives, this timeline brings to life the lived experiences behind the statistics.

Immigrant Contributions: Aurora, Colorado

Over the past five months, the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) has worked with Welcoming America and the Office of International and Immigrant Affairs of the City of Aurora, Colorado to provide a comprehensive picture of the foreign-born population in Aurora using iDod.

Fall For The Book & The IIR Announces The 2026 New American Voices Award

IIR Spotlight: Elyse Adams, Program Coordinator at the IIR

Elyse Adams is the full-time Program Coordinator for the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) and an adjunct faculty of Bio-archaeology at the University of Mary Washington. Elyse’s academic background starts with a bachelor’s degree in historic preservation at the University of Mary Washington and a master’s degree in bio-archaeology from George Mason University. Prior to joining the IIR, she worked in historic architecture and museums as well as conducted field schools at the Stafford Civil War Pite in Stafford County, Virginia.

IIR Spotlight Interview: Kellie S. Wilkerson

Kellie S. Wilkerson is a public and applied sociologist who earned her bachelor's degree in applied sociology from the University of Tampa, her master’s degree in public sociology from Cal Poly Humboldt, and her doctoral degree in sociology from George Mason.

IIR Spotlight Interview: Christophe Vitello

Christophe Vitello is a George Mason University undergraduate student who worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) in the 2025-2026 academic year. With academic interests in cultural anthropology, folklore, and visual storytelling, Chris joined IIR through George Mason’s Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) program, contributing to the Leaving and Belonging Digital Storytelling project.

Folklore professor named Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2026-27 academic year

Folklore faculty and director of the Institute for Immigration Research, Lisa Gilman has been selected as a recipient of Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards for 2026-2027.

IIR GRA Aditi Goel receives Wendy Balazik Award

IIR Graduate Research Assistant, Aditi Goel, receives the Wendy Balazik Communication and Social Change Award at the GMU Communications Department Grad Awards and Graduation Celebration on May 12th, 2026.