About the project
Villanova University’s Strategic Initiative for Migrants + Refugees in collaboration with the Augustinian Secretariate for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation, the Center for Migration Studies (CMS), Jesuit Refugee Services, the Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI), US Catholic Conference of Bishops, Migration and Refugee Services, among other partners, are embarking on a three-year project with the objective of engaging key Catholic institutions from around the world to co-create a college and university-focused joint Action Plan that mobilizes academics and their community partners in a worldwide response to critical issues impacting migrants and refugees.
In an address by Pope Francis on September 29, 2022 at the international RME Network conference on migrant and refugee education at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he called on the academic community to contribute to the understanding and social promotion of migrants and refugees. He noted that it is imperative that universities undertake concrete action to address global migration and refugee movements because these issues are crucial to our times. Now is the time to leverage the growing interest in migration among universities and mobilize Catholic institutions to assume a central role in researching issues related to migration, serving migrant and refugee communities, and educating students in ways that change attitudes and enrich students’ hearts and minds. Some universities are already engaged in this work, operating in silos with little collaboration, while others are interested in these issues for the first time and would benefit from resources and guidance from universities with relevant experience. By its nature, migration is a multilateral phenomenon that cannot be understood from one discipline or one geographic vantage point, necessitating an international, interdisciplinary response.
Academics, scholars, researchers, teachers, administrators, migrants and refugees, students, and non-governmental organizations that serve migrants and refugees will be invited to pursue concrete action in areas primarily focused on teaching, research and scholarship, advocacy, and service with migrants and refugees depending on their expertise and local context. Using tools to analyze how to make systems change, these key global stakeholders will collaborate to share knowledge, expertise, and resources for higher education institutions to form and initiate a global response to address fundamental issues impacting migrants and refugees.
This project is led by Michele Pistone, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Strategic Initiative on Migrants + Refugees at Villanova University, together with Massimo Faggioli, PhD, Professor of Theology at Villanova University.
This is not a typical academic conference. It’s a multi-year project modeling a new way forward where academics, students, and community partners work in plenary sessions and small groups to share ideas, resources, and expertise and collaborate on refining a concrete Action Plan. By working together, colleges and universities can inspire change while learning from each other. Specifically, they will create action items pertaining to four primary areas of focus:
- Teaching: influencing curriculum requirements to include teaching about migrants and refugees through different disciplines, with a focus on human dignity, respect for diversity, and cross-cultural understanding; teacher training/professional development for teaching about refugees and migrants; and crowdsourcing of teaching materials and other tools to support professors.
- Research and Scholarship: identifying research needs and priorities; fostering connections and leveraging opportunities for researchers and scholars to collaborate with on-the-ground global community partners in applied research and scholarship that aligns with the needs of the community; and involving migrants and refugees in research to incorporate accurate perspectives.
- Service with Migrants and Refugees: creating opportunities for meaningful encounters between university students and migrants in their communities, with the goal of fostering mutual understanding and appreciation; and transference of credentials, degrees, licenses, and titles.
- Advocacy for and Education of Migrants and Refugees: providing higher education opportunities, such as enrolling refugee students in classes; understanding special needs (i.e., language access, disabilities, trauma-informed supports); and offering online opportunities to reach students off campus.
The first in-person gathering is October 1-3, 2025 at the Augustinianum in Rome, Italy, immediately before the Jubilee for Migrants and Refugees on October 4-5. The Augustinianum, located adjacent to St. Peter’s Square, with vistas of St. Peter’s Basilica, offers an ideal location. Through Keynote addresses, panel discussions, Lightning Talks, poster presentations, and break-out working groups, a curated group of action-driven stakeholders will collaborate on drafting an Action Plan that articulates a mission and vision, recommends action items, shares best practices, and includes a broad range of possible interventions that respond to the different local contexts of the members, and states clear milestones and deliverables.
With community-building across institutions as a goal, the stakeholders will continue to meet by Zoom in working groups (defined based on member interests – by geography, discipline, type of institution) around different interventions, hosting smaller regional gatherings and a larger in-person gathering bi-annually to track progress, share resources and best practices, and exchange ideas to address systemic issues. The community will remain connected through a new online platform of shared resources and networks. Participants will be encouraged to provide guidance and resources for academics seeking to create an action plan for their institutions that responds to their local context.
Through this significant collaboration of colleges and universities across the globe, this project aims to influence the understandings, attitudes, and beliefs about migrants and refugees through higher education. The resulting Action Plan will collectively benefit all parties involved: migrants and refugees will directly benefit from the research, teaching and service offered by universities; universities and their students will benefit from learning in community; non-government organizations serving immigrants will benefit from applied research that supports their on-the-ground efforts and enhanced service interventions; and the entire global community will benefit from the knowledge and structural changes this project will produce. Apply here to participate.
