Lisa Unangst

After 12 years working in administrative roles across career services, alumni affairs, and international education, and after earning an Ed.M. part-time, I returned to grad school to pursue a Ph.D. Since then, I have served as a consultant for the American Council on Education, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent, and visiting assistant professor at Ohio University. My research interests include higher education access and experience among displaced populations; higher education governance; international alumni affairs; and cross-national constructions of "diversity." In 2024, I published a book titled Immigrants and refugees at German universities: Diversity, internationalization and anticolonial considerations with Routledge.

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Higher Education from Boston College
  • Ed.M. in International Education Policy from Harvard University Graduate School of Education
  • BA in American Studies/German Studies from Smith College

Publications

  • Casellas Connors, I., Unangst, L., & Barone, N. (2023). Supporting displaced students in U.S higher education: Examining institutional policy and practice. Race, Ethnicity, and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2023.2192947

  • Unangst, L., Borg, N., Casellas Connors, I., & Barone, N. (2022). Diversities at US colleges and universities: Online diversity statements at institutions employing Chief Diversity Officers. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Leadership Studies, 3(3), 16-36. https://dx.doi.org/10.52547/johepal.3.3.16

  • Unangst, L., Casellas Connors, I., & Barone, N. (2022). State based policy supports for refugee, asylee, and TPS-background students in U.S. higher education. Refuge: Canada’s Journal of Refugees, 38(1), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40819

  • Unangst, L., & Martínez Alemán, A.M. (2021). Coloniality in the German higher education system: Implications for policy and institutional practice. Social Inclusion, 9(3), 142–153. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i3.4139

  • de Wit, H., Leal, F., & Unangst, L. (2020). Internationalization aimed at global social justice: Brazilian university initiatives to integrate refugees and displaced populations. ETD - Educação Temática Digital, 22(3), 567-590. https://doi.org/10.20396/etd.v22i3.8659331

  • Unangst, L. (2020). International alumni engagement: Operations, leadership, and policy at U.S. research universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Leadership Studies, 1(2), 63-77. https://johepal.com/article-1-53-en.pdf

  • Unangst, L., & Crea, T. (2020). Higher education for refugees: A need for intersectional research. Comparative Education Review, 64(2), 228-248. https://doi.org/10.1086/708190

  • Wu, A., Leask, B., Choi, E., Unangst, L., & de Wit, H. (2020). Internationalization of medical education – a scoping review of the current status in the United States. Medical Science Educator. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-01034-8

  • Unangst, L. (2019). Refugees in the German tertiary system: Implications and recommendations for policy change. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 3(2), 144-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2019.1643254

  • Unangst, L., & Barone, N. (2019). Operationalizing “internationalization” in the community college sector: Textual analysis of institutional internationalization plans. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education, 4, 177-196. https://doi.org/10.28945/4435