Cambio Center News - March 2014
Happy Spring from the Cambio Center!
In this newsletter: Cambio de Colores Update, Brown Bag Lunch, Updates from Fellows, Featured Fellow: Jim Wirth, APPAM Call for Papers for Fall Conference, Co-edited special issue in JOLLAS
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Cambio de Colores 2014 – Keynote Speakers
We are pleased to share that we will be hosting renowned Princeton scholar Dr. Alejandro Portes as a keynote speaker at the Cambio de Colores Conference this June 25 – 27. See more details at www.cambiodecolores.org.
Brown Bag Lunch - Friday, April 18th
Please join us for our next brown bag lunch in the Cambio Center (301 Gentry Hall). So far, these lunches have had positive results in facilitating discussion and collaboration between fellows in a relaxed and informal format. We look forward to seeing new faces in the lunches to come!
We’ll meet over the lunch hour, so please bring your lunch, and we’ll have some cookies and treats to share.
Updates from Cambio Center Fellows
Recent Publications:
Potochnick, Stephanie. (2014). ”How States Can Reduce the Dropout Rate for Undocumented Immigrant Youth: The Effects of In-State Resident Tuition Policies.“ Forthcoming in Social Science Research 45: 18-32.
Potochnick, Stephanie. (2014). “The Academic Adaptation of Children of Immigrants in New and Traditional Settlement Communities: The Role of Family, Schools, and Neighborhoods.” Forthcoming in Population Research and Policy Review. Published on-line; print forthcoming.
Cambio Center’s Featured Fellow of the Month: Jim Wirth, Ph.D.
Jim Wirth is a Human Development Specialist who focuses on programming related to career and professional development, leadership development, family, parenting, child development, aging, diversity, and healthy living. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from Loyola University of Chicago, has taught multiple college courses, and has done many community research projects. From 1999-2013, while working as a Human Development Specialist in southwest Missouri, Jim presented 2,519 programs for 60,052 attendees in 10 counties and statewide audiences, and delivered programs on over 138 different topics. Below is a summary of his recent work, presenting the impact of teaching English to non-English speakers.
Among MU Extension professionals, Jim was a pioneer in proactively addressing the important demographic changes happening in non-metro areas of Missouri. He has been involved in all previous twelve annual Cambio de Colores conferences, and has been instrumental in facilitating Cambio Center research and outreach in southwest Missouri.
Eleven-Year Impact of Teaching English to non-English speakers (2002-12)
In response to the increasing Hispanic/Latino population in Missouri,
as understood from the 2000 Census,
Alianzas was created in 2001 to enhance the
ability of University of Missouri Extension and its partners to
respond to the needs of Hispanic/Latino immigrants and the Missouri
communities that receive them.
During this time, Jim Wirth along with his wife Shirley presented
195 classes for 1,055 adult attendees who were
interested in learning English.
- Most attendees were Latinos from Mexico and Central America. There were also attendees from South America, Russia, and Albania.
- Class sizes ranged from 1-17 with the average class size being 6 (up to 2011). These classes were usually offered weekly throughout the year except the summer. Classes were often presented separately for the beginners and more advanced.
- Many attendees from these classes gained proficiency in survivor English. And many obtained job promotions because of their increased proficiency in English. Additionally, they became more able to navigate in the institutions that met their basic needs as well as understand the culture of the United States as portrayed in Taney County, Missouri.
- In these classes, attendees learned about the institutional culture of the United States, particularly as applied to school, health care, police, job protocols, and how to be civically assertive and polite while getting needs met for themselves and their families. Jim & Shirley Wirth also became the social brokers in matching needs with resources.
- This has been a unique program supported by the University of Missouri Extension in outreach to Latino newcomers. Nowhere else in the state has Extension been as involved in teaching English to Latinos.
Photography Exhibit
MIRA Art Exhibit
“The Missouri Immigrant Experience: Faces & Places”
The MIRA Art Exhibit is coming to Columbia! This fascinating photo
exhibit, now refreshed with immigrant faces and places from Columbia’s
historic past, will open on Saturday morning, April 5th, 2014,
at the Columbia Library and will continue to be open to the
public without charge through Saturday, April 26, 2014, with
additional programming throughout the month.
This year the Exhibit will feature four Missouri
photographers, Oscar Pedroza, Juan Montana, Amela Sinanagic and Rita
Chu. Their work will be coupled with historic images of immigrant
communities in Columbia, Springfield, Kansas City and Saint Louis as
the four cities grew and prospered with the arrival of other new
Americans over the past century.
APPAM Announces a Call for Papers
2014 Fall Research Conference
November 6 – 8, 2014
Albuquerque, New Mexico
The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Fall
Research Conference is a multi-disciplinary annual meeting that
attracts the highest quality research on a wide variety of important
current and emerging policy and management issues. The conference is
comprised of panels, roundtables, workshops, symposia and poster
presentations and is designed to encourage substantive interaction
among participants. Submissions (due April 11) can fall into any of
the fourteen featured policy areas, including the new area Population
and Migration Issues.
The full list can be found on APPAM.org.
For complete details on submitting a proposal,
please visit the APPAM website.
Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies (JOLLAS) – Special Issue
Cinthya M. Saavedra & Michelle S. Pérez have co-edited a special
issue in JOLLAS entitled Chicana/Latina Feminism(s): Negotiating
Pedagogical Borderlands is now available! This special issue of JOLLAS
is a reflection and extension of Chicana/Latina feminist
epistemologies (CLFEs) in education. Using the work of Chicana
feminist educators, the contributors exemplify how CLFEs are embodied
in education research in order to provide new pedagogical
understandings and visions.
http://jollas.metapress.com/content/d527178134g51k00/
__________________________________________________________________
Cambio Center
301 Gentry Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
(573) 882-2978
cambio@missouri.edu
www.cambio.missouri.edu