The university founded the Immigrant Research and Policy Center, an interdisciplinary program with faculty from the colleges of arts and sciences,  business, education, public affairs and community service and visual arts and design. 

Faculty will participate in an effort to encourage interdisciplinary work in immigrant-related research. Since 2002, faculty members have received almost $3 million in external funding to support research in this area.

Todd Jewell, right, professor of economics, will serve as director. Jewell says the center’s research programs will be far-reaching, covering all elements of the immigrant experience. The center’s research will not be strictly focused on Hispanic immigration to the U.S., but will instead examine the immigration experiences of populations in many different regions of the world. 

The center’s primary goal is to become a nationally recognized source and repository of immigrant-related research, and in the future to expand to include researchers from UNT Dallas and the UNT Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.

“This center will be an asset not only to the university and its faculty, but also to the community at large. The center will support interdisciplinary research, encourage a higher level of scholarship and allow our researchers to answer important immigrant-related questions in a comprehensive manner,” says Wendy K. Wilkins, provost and vice president for academic affairs.