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Imagining Community Graduate Student Conference (April 10, 2026)

Imagining Community
A Graduate Student Conference on
Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging

April 10, 2026, 9:00am-5:00pm
Paul Robeson Campus Center

Register at https://forms.gle/UfX5NXSjn9mNWDyL8.

This conference is co-organized by graduate students in American Studies and in Global Urban Studies (Joint PhD Program in Urban Systems), with support from Rutgers Global and Graduate School Newark. We thank the graduate student organizers: Fernanda Espinosa, Chelsea Wong, Lauren Holt, Gilbert Nuwagira, Nooreen Fatima, and Colleen O’Neal.

A cityscape sits in a blue bar on a black flyer. Next to the bar is a logo for Rutgers Newark at the top. This is followed by the text: Imagining Community A Graduate Student Conference on Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging April 10, 2026, 9am-5pm Paul Robeson Campus Center. At the bottom right is the text Co-organized by graduate students in American Studies and in Global Urban Studies (Joint PhD Program in Urban Systems), with support from Rutgers Global and Graduate School Newark. This is followed by logos for each of these entities.

Conference Schedule

9:00am Doors Open; Coffee and light refreshments served
Location: Bergen (Room 255-257)

9:30am Opening Remarks offered by Dr. Kyle Riismandel, Director of American Studies, and Dr. Mara Sidney, Director of Global Urban Studies (Joint PhD Program in Urban Systems)
Location: Bergen (Room 255-257)

9:45am Keynote Speaker Dr. Diane Wong
Location: Bergen (Room 255-257)

10:15am Transition to breakout rooms

10.30am Session 1

  • Panel 1: Politics of Community
    Moderated by Varun Sardesai
    Location: Monmouth (Room 237)

    • Ghada Rifai (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “AI-Assisted Community Mapping for Post-Conflict Housing Recovery: A Pilot in Harasta, Rural Damascus/ Syria”
    • Lynn Ayoub (The New School, Public and Urban Policy Program, PhD): “Between Commons and Capital: The Political Economy of Rubble in Beirut’s Cycles of Destruction”
    • Roula Seghaier (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Whose Revolution? Migrant Agency and the Persistence of Nationalism in Uprisings”
    • Cintia Martins Freitas (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Socio-environmental inequalities connecting the flood disasters of 1966 and 1996 in Rio de Janeiro: an analysis of community response and community indifference”
  • Panel 2: Community in Media Studies
    Moderated by Dominique Rocker
    Location: Somerset (Room 235)

    • Esperanza Santos (Rutgers, AMST, PhD): “Madres del Movimiento: A media analysis of trans Latina movement leaders Lorena Borejas, Cecilia Gentili, and Bambi Salcedo, 1985-2024”
    • William Lorenzo (Rutgers, AMST, PhD): “’We Are Star Stuff’: Carl Sagan, NASA Imagery, and the Media Construction of Cosmic Citizenship”
    • Victoria Timpanaro (Rutgers, AMST, PhD): Community from the Films of George Romero
    • Titilayo Afolabi (University of Delaware, MA Africana Studies): “The birds with no feet: Black lesbian pleasure in friendship and World-making”
    • Anjali Madgula (Rutgers, AMST, MA): “Organizing in Popular Culture: Jane McAlevey and Teen Drama Television”

12:30pm Lunch Break
Location: Bergen (Room 255-257)

1:45pm Transition to breakout rooms

2:00pm Session 2

  • Panel 3: Migration, Diaspora, and Community
    Moderated by Jayati Narain
    Location Monmouth (Room 237)

    • Mustafa Hoshmand (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Refugee-Led Organizations in Turkey: Non-Formal and Informal Educational Responses”
    • Ayesha Ali (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Rhythma of Paterson: Urban Religious Lives of Muslims in Paterson”
    • Victor Borja Armas (The New School, Graduate Program in International Affairs, School of Public Engagement): “Title: Home Away from Home: Diaspora, Football, and Transnational Belonging in the U.S. World Cup
  • Panel 4: Urban Communities
    Moderated by Chayce Kenney
    Location: Somerset (Room 235)

    • Radhya Kareem (The New School, Public and Urban Policy, PhD): “STRIKE SEASON or Why do you Live Under a Bridge Anyways? Living at the nexus of Myrtle Broadway”
    • Joshua Musicant (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Legends of Hybrid Brooklyn”
    • Joshua McWhirter (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Fiscal architectures: Recovering the embodied costs of economic development tax breaks in New York City”
    • Tamara Velasquez Leiferman (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Digital Nomadization and Transnational Spillover Gentrification in Mexico City”
    • Amanda Sweeney (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Abolition Theory Applied to the Creation of a Community Fridge”
  • Panel 5: Mapping Community & Interdisciplinary Methods
    Moderated by Colleen O’Neal
    Location: Bergen (Room 255-257)

    • Natalia Costas (Independent scholar, Brazil): “Walkability and the Landscape in the School Surroundings”
    • Cyrus Gray (Rutgers, AMST, PhD): “Sites of Surveillance: A Case Study of the Malayan ‘Sexual Perversion’ Cases”
    • Mansi Shah (NJIT and Rutgers, Urban Systems and Technology, PhD): “The Collective Image of the City: Urban Form and Spatial Perception in New Jersey”
    • Sisag Clio Bravo Idrobo (Rutgers, Visual Arts, MFA alum): “Latinx Dreams: Migrant Futurity and Collective Imagination through Visual Arts”
    • Erin O’Hanlon (Stockton University, AMST, MA): “Reading Community: Place as Text and the Practice of Belonging”
    • Ehsan Lotfi Mokri (Rutgers, GUS, PhD): “Interdisciplinary Lessons: What Can Global Urban Studies and Cultural Studies Learn from Each Other?”

4.00pm Reflections & Concluding Remarks from organizing committee (Fernanda Espinosa, Chelsea Wong, Lauren Holt, Gilbert Nuwagira, Nooreen Fatima, and Colleen O’Neal)
Location: Bergen (Room 255-257)

5:00pm Reception
Location: McGovern’s Tavern (58-60 New St, Newark, NJ 07102)