University City Resident Earns Fulbright to Study Bosnian Culture, Immigration

Stephanie DiPietro, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, recently received a 2013-2014 J. William Fulbright Award for the Spring 2014 semester, according to UMSL.

The award will allow DiPietro, a University City resident, to conduct research complementing her current work on the long-term adaptation of Bosnian refugees in St. Louis. 

She will conduct the research and teach at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovia.

“This is a tremendous honor and will be a very important part of my research,” she said in a press release. “For the past year I’ve been engaged in a study of St. Louis’ Bosnian population. My primary interest is in the younger generation, who has come of age in St. Louis and have largely defined themselves as Bosnian-Americans.”

Through open-ended interviews collecting life history and experiences, DiPietro has spoken with dozens of members of the Bosnian community in St. Louis, which is largely located in the south St. Louis city and county areas.

“What’s most interesting to me is how the Bosnian community has changed in 15 or so years since most Bosnians first arrived,” she said. ”They came (to St. Louis) in a huge group almost overnight.”

DiPietro joined UMSL in 2010 as an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her research focus is immigration and crime, juvenile delinquency and criminological theory.