The Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration announces seed grant funding for three projects led by WashU faculty and students working at the intersection of human rights, gender and migration. Each academic year, the center provides one to four seed, or urgent gap-filling grants. 2024 recipients will present their projects in fall, 2025.
During the past three years, the center has awarded eight grants totaling $58,000, to six faculty members and two graduate students across three different WashU schools. In 2024, three grants were awarded to two faculty members and one graduate student. Project topics range from assessing the quality of life of Iranian immigrants and migration policies, to the prevention of mental illness among forcibly displaced adolescent girls, to a project on language accessibility to immigrants in legal settings in St. Louis.
The three projects awarded this year include:
Sibling-Support for Adolescent Girls: A whole-family, gender transformative approach to preventing mental illness among forcibly displaced adolescent girls
Primary Investigator: Ilana Seff, DrPH
Co-investigators: Lindsay Stark, DrPH; Byron Powell, PhD, LCSW; Arturo Harker Roa, PhD
Summary: In partnership with the Women’s Refugee Commission and Mercy Corps, and supported by an NIH grant, this project involves implementation science research around a sibling-centered intervention for families in humanitarian settings. The study will assess an innovative whole-family and gender transformative intervention—Sibling Support for Adolescent Girls in Emergencies (SSAGE). Designed to prevent mental health disorders among adolescent girls in Colombia who were recently and forcibly displaced from Venezuela, the study will test the program’s effectiveness and mechanistic pathways as well as explore determinants of implementation to establish the feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of SSAGE. One month post-intervention, researchers will examine the program’s effectiveness on the prevention of mental illness through reduction in anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, and somatization symptoms. They will collect additional data on the hypothesized mechanistic pathways, including family attachment, gender equitable family functioning, self-esteem, and coping strategies. The implementation evaluation will employ mixed methods to assess the program’s feasibility, acceptability, fidelity and barriers and facilitators to successful implementation.
WashULaw Immigration Law Clinic (ICL) Language Access Project Renewal
Recipient: Katie Meyer, JD
Summary: The WashULaw ILC client base is growing and diversifying. ILC clients currently speak at least 14 different languages, including Spanish, French, Dari, Turkish, and Uyghur, which increases the ILC’s interpretation needs. According to their interpretation hours tracker, in each of the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters at WashU, the ILC required more than 70 hours of interpreting services. The primary roles of the interpreters include translating documents and correspondence; and interpreting at meetings with ILC clients. Until the ILC received the Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration seed grant last year, it had no budget for professional interpretation and translation services and relied on volunteers. The volunteer-only model was insufficient, and thanks to the center seed grant, it is now supplemented with much-needed professional interpretation and translation services. The ILC currently uses center funds to expand their language access program, which includes access to professional services, so it can continue to zealously serve eligible clients regardless of the client’s language abilities or income.
Quality of Life of Highly Educated Iranian Immigrants and Restrictive Migration Policies
Primary Investigator: Jihye Lee, PhD student in social work
Mentor: Mitra Naseh, PhD
Summary: This study addresses a critical gap in understanding the quality of life of highly educated Iranian immigrants in the United States, focusing on the challenges they face due to restrictive U.S. immigration policies. Significantly impacted by policies such as the travel ban, this demographic provides a unique context for examining the interplay between immigration policies, social integration, and personal well-being. The study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of how these affect the quality of life of these immigrants, with particular emphasis on family separation, visa regulations, and perceived discrimination, especially considering the impact of gender on experiences of discrimination. Researchers will study the impact of family separation, challenges with visa regulations, and experiences of discrimination due to anti-immigrant rhetoric. The study highlights the need for policy reforms to address these issues, emphasizing the intersection of human rights, gender, and migration. Addressing gender-specific challenges is crucial for promoting equitable treatment and opportunities for Iranian immigrants, especially women. The findings will contribute to academic scholarship and offer valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and advocacy groups working towards more inclusive and equitable opportunities for immigrants.
The Center for Human Rights, Gender & Migration seed grant recipients are funded for one year. Watch the center’s website in April, when the 2025 funding round is announced.