Shifting Structural Power and Advancing Transformational Changes Among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC): Elevating the Voices of the Community

Dear Colleagues,

The multiple global pandemics (e.g., COVID-19, racial profiling and violence, and climate change) in the last couple years highlighted major structural disparities among Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), immigrant and refugee communities in the U.S., its territories, and relationships with other nation states or countries. Such disparities are deeply rooted in structural oppression, including colonization and other dehumanizing practices, which dismiss a community’s way of life, epistemic stances, and wisdom. Nevertheless, communities continue to resist and weather these human conditions and trauma, shifting the power dynamics.

For this Special Issue, we invite contributors from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary backgrounds (e.g., social work, public health, sociology, psychology, Indigenous studies, critical Ethnic Studies, social sciences, language and history, education, humanities, etc.), including practitioners, artists, community members, and scholars, to share approaches, strategies and ways in which community has responded to the needs of the people. We wish to explore how communities have created transformative, empowering, and healing practices and how scholars and practitioners have facilitated elevation of community knowledge(s), voices, and wisdom in spaces/places that historically excluded such communities.  This Special Issue also aims to solicit approaches and strategies that may be relevant and useful on multiple ecological levels (e.g., micro/individual, messo/group/family, macro/policies/programs/organizations) that serve and facilitate change. 

We welcome creative contributions such as poetry, letters, visual arts, essays, stories, and interviews that showcase and elevate community strengths, assets and voices. Most importantly, we seek contributions that highlight intergenerational healing, and processes of reclaiming, decolonizing, Indigenizing and generally shifting the balance of power.

Topics of interest include:

• Community-based initiatives and efforts in immigrant and refugee communities.
• Lessons learned from community-based grassroots work among children, youth, and/or families.
• Mutual aid efforts.
• Community–university partnerships that provide fresh strategies for resolving community issues.
• Cultural work that fosters healing, transformative, liberatory change across generations.
• Anti-oppressive clinical and healing approaches that disrupt the mainstream medical model.
• Strategies that harness human (indigenous, immigrant, migrant, and/or refugee) rights.
• Approaches or strategies that include processes of reclaiming, decolonizing, and/or Indigenizing for community change.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the lead Guest Editor (email [email protected]) or to the Genealogy editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Prof. Dr. Alma M. Ouanesisouk Trinidad
Dr. Ethel G. Nicdao
Dr. Aileen Alfonso Duldulao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• community
• power
• transformation
• structural change
• BIPOC
• immigrants
• refugees

Title: “You can finish”: BIPOC perspectives on supports for higher education
Author: Mosier-Puentes
Highlights: - A growing number of college students are nontraditional Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) - This qualitative study sought the perspectives of 111 BIPOC in Oregon regarding their experiences with higher education, including experiences with enrolling in, leaving, and/or never enrolling -This paper focuses on supports that make higher education possible for nontraditional BIPOC student

Title: Healing PUSO: Pinays Mobilizing for Healing Generations in Stockton’s Filipinx Community
Author: Divino
Highlights: 1. Academic institutions working to address sociocultural barriers to mental health care can benefit from engaging community voices including community-based nonprofits working directly with communities most impacted by health inequities, stigma, shame, and generational. 2. During the collaborative research process, community-university partnerships among Filipinx require consistent communication, trust, transparency and shared goals of intergenerational and cultural healing.