"Landscapes of Belonging: Refugee Experiences in Nebraska and Beyond" is collaborating with the UNO Service Learning Academy to support service learning projects that incorporate the refugee communities and/or organizations in Omaha.
Nebraska, with a substantial foreign-born population, has been one of the highest recipients of refugees per capita. Nebraska is home to diverse populations from Burma, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Afghanistan. The Goldstein Family Community Chair in Human Rights is sponsoring a new project, "Landscapes of Belonging: Refugee Experiences in Nebraska and Beyond," to provide scholarly knowledge on refugees in Nebraska and global refugee trends through research, teaching, and community engagement.
The project is collaborating with the UNO Service Learning Academy (a unit within the UNO Office of Engagement), to support service learning projects that incorporate the refugee communities and/or organizations in Omaha.
Expectations of applicants:
- Applicants are full or part-time faculty members teaching at UNO
- Applicants can teach in-person, online or hybrid courses
- Applicants will teach a course in Spring or Fall 2026 with the service learning component that incorporates refugees or refugee organizations in Omaha
- Applicants attend the Service Learning Seminar in Summer 2025 or have attended before.
Successful applications will receive a $1000 course development stipend. Selection will be made by Dr. Lana Obradovic, Goldstein Family Community Chair in Human Rights, Julie Dierberger, UNO Chief Engagement Officer, and Dr. Laura Alexander, Director of the Goldstein Center for Human Rights. All stipends will be received at the beginning of the semester the course is taught directly to the faculty member.
Application materials:
- Letter from the applicant to include:
- Course description and outline of the service learning project
- Faculty member’s experience teaching service learning courses
- Implementation timeline
- Potential community partners
- Letter of support from the department chair
- Course outline/syllabus provided to students
Submit your application by 11:59 PM on August 15, 2025.
Please direct questions to Dr. Lana Obradovic or Julie Dierberger.
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The Goldstein Family Community Chair in Human Rights was established in 2017 through the generosity of Shirley and Leonard Goldstein's children: Don Goldstein, Kathy Goldstein-Helm, and Gail Raznick. It brings energy and expertise to coordinate and expand a broad range of human rights initiatives at UNO.
The Service Learning Academy is an academic unit whose mission is to facilitate university and community-wide partnerships, develop and collaborate on community-based research, and support rigorous service learning courses in pursuit of UNO’s metropolitan mission to transform and improve the quality of life locally, nationally and globally.