Bernadette Ludwig, PhD

Dr. Bernadette Ludwig is a Sociologist and the Assistant Dean of the Macricostas School of Arts and Sciences at Western Connecticut State University. (Note, the Dean’s office consists of the Dean, the Assistant Dean, and an administrative assistant.) She is also an Affiliated Faculty with The New School's Zolberg Institute on Migration & Mobility. As a first-generation college graduate and immigrant, she grounds her work in equity-centered practice—a commitment that has shaped her leadership, scholarship, and teaching throughout her career. Through collaborations across the university and with local and national partners, she advances inclusion, belonging, and social justice, works on expanding access, and strengthens sustainable and innovative academic and community initiatives.

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Her leadership is rooted in community-based work. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Ludwig worked with refugee and immigrant communities in the metro Atlanta, GA area for several years; most recently, as the co-founder and the executive director of Culture Connect, Inc. This experience continues to inform her academic leadership, scholarship, and teaching.

 

In higher education, Dr. Ludwig is a proven leader guiding initiatives in curriculum development, civic and community engagement, faculty development, student leadership, and program assessment. She has developed strategic and assessment plans that strengthen academic programs, supported faculty in community-engaged teaching, and successfully secured numerous grants for community engagement initiatives as well as leadership development. She established an interdisciplinary Minor in Civic Engagement, launched a non-partisan voter education and registration initiative, supported the Bonner Leaders Program, and served for over a decade as Project Pericles Program Director, integrating civic engagement throughout the academic experience.

Dr. Ludwig began her academic career as an assistant professor of Sociology at Wagner College, where she earned early tenure and promotion and was later promoted to full professor.

 

She is an alumna of the HERS Leadership Institute, a national leadership development program for higher education professionals which she attended as a recipient of the HERS-Mellon Leader Fellowship.

 

Dr. Ludwig’s primary research focuses on the intersections of immigration, race, and gender, with particular attention to how seemingly race-neutral refugee and immigration policies are, in fact, inherently racist. Her book, Unwelcome Shores. Black Refugees in America (Rutgers University Press, 2025), is the first monograph that explicitly examines the role of race and anti-Black racism in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the incorporation of Black refugees into U.S. society. This work complements her other publications in journals such as International Migration, Forced Migration Review, and International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, as well chapters in edited books. She also draws on this scholarship in her work as a pro bono country conditions expert for Liberians seeking asylum or facing deportation.

 

Her other strand of research focuses on community-engaged learning. Dr.  Ludwig has published about the impact of community engagement for students, particularly those from historically excluded groups. In addition, she has developed several resources for civic engagement and community-engaged learning pedagogy, including a co-edited book, How to Facilitate Community-Engaged Learning (under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing).

 

Her leadership and commitment to excellence in teaching and mentoring have been recognized by colleagues and students. In her first year as an assistant professor at Wagner College, she received the New Educators Award – Distinguished Professor Award. She later received the Martin Luther King Jr. Agent of Change Award, the Black Student Union’s Faculty Award for Alliance and Guidance, and additional awards for Excellence in Service, Excellence in Teaching, and Excellence in Scholarship.