Hailu Awarded Spencer Foundation Small Grant to Explore Refugee Cultural Heritage Use

Dr. Meseret Hailu, assistant professor of higher education at the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education, has been awarded a $50,000 Small Research Grant from the Spencer Foundation to support her project, Narratives of Persistence: A Postcolonial Exploration of Black African Refugee Postsecondary Students’ Cultural Heritage Use.

Dr. Hailu will lead the two-year qualitative study as principal investigator, in close collaboration with co-principal investigator, Dr. Ane Turner Johnson, a professor at Rowan University. The project will explore how Black African refugee students in the U.S., particularly in Georgia and the Northeast, leverage their cultural heritage to navigate and persist in higher education. Additionally, the project will partner with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Atlanta, a long-standing advocate for refugee communities.

"We are proud to see Dr. Hailu's research recognized and supported by the Spencer Foundation," said Dr. Erik Ness, director of the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education. "Her work not only highlights the resilience and resourcefulness of refugee students, but also advances our commitment to rigorous, inclusive, and collaborative scholarship."

Dr. Hailu and Dr. Johnson bring a strong history of collaboration to this endeavor, having published research in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations and in Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education focused on similar themes. Their new project will involve interviews and focus groups to better understand how refugee students maintain and leverage their cultural identities in academic settings.

“Our goal is to show that learning and cultural heritage are not mutually exclusive,” said Dr. Hailu. “We hope this research will contribute to a broader understanding of how refugee students thrive, not in spite of their backgrounds, but because of them.”

In addition to advancing scholarship, the grant will also provide some support for a McBee graduate student to assist with the project, offering valuable hands-on research experience.