Public Lectures

About | Research Themes | Research Projects | Creative Practice | Teaching

Recent Public Presentations

Invited Lecture: Rethinking Transdisciplinarity and the Politics of Participation, DesignLab Guest Lecture at The University of Twente, May 7th, 2021.

Invited Lecture: Making Sense of Crises, Interrogating Narratives. HelsinCHI, Helsinki, Finland, October 2. 2020.

Keynote Lecture: Designing for Contestations and Cooperative Agency in Crises. Computer Science Research Day, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, October 1, 2020.

Conference Presentations

Te Awa Tupua: Sacred Rivers and Cooperative Urban AI Ecosystems. Workshop on Urban AI: Formulating an Agenda for the Interdisciplinary Research of Artificial Intelligence in Cities, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2020), July 6-20, 2020, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Ecologies of Contestation in Participatory Design. The 16th Participatory Design Conference (PDC 2020), June 15-19, Manizales, Columbia. ACM.

Memories in Exile: Mahmoud Darwish and the village of Al-Birweh. Symposium on Sites of Reckoning: Memorials, Museums & Fractured Truth(s) in the Aftermaths of Mass Violence, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, March 5-6, 2020.

Cooperative Crisis Response among Emergency Responders & AI Systems. Workshop on Better Supporting Workers in ML Workplaces, the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, November 9-13, 2019, Austin, TX, USA.

Democratizing Data: Grassroots Strategies to Advance Human Rights, Panel on Pushing Boundaries: Data as Art and Evidence, Bernstein Institute for Human Rights, Vanderbilt Hall, NYU School of Law, April 17-18, 2019.

Contestational Design: How Agonism Transforms Participatory Design, Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography and Social Thought (GIDEST), The New School, University Center, Room 411, 63 Fifth Avenue, New York, Friday, April 12, 2019, 12:00 – 1:30 PM.

Design Ethnography & Multi-Perspective Data: Making Meaningful Design Choices, American Anthropological Association (AAA), 117th Annual Meeting, Google Building 1055, 1055 Joaquin Rd, Mountain View, CA, November 15th 2018, 3:00 – 5:00 PM.

Audio Journaling for Self-Reflection and Assessment among Teens in Participatory Media Programs. International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’18), Trondheim, Norway, June 19-22, 2018.

Technology and Contemporary Forms of Expression, ACC Forum: Making the Case for Cultural Exchange, Asian Cultural Council, John Brademas Center of New York University, New York, June 12-14, 2017.

Walking through Sacred Landscapes: Encountering Soundscapes in Kailash, Mountains and Sacred Landscapes Conference,International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture (ISSRNC), The New School, New York City, April 20-23, 2017.

Zona Intervenida: Performance as Memory, Transforming Contested Spaces, Rethinking Peace Studies Conference on Translation, Memory and Dialogue, at the Japan ICU University, Tokyo, Japan, June 2-4, 2016.

Experimenting with Butoh-based Performance: An Artistic Inquiry into Translation, Memory and Dialogue.Co-presented with Daniel Fernández, Rethinking Peace Studies Conference on Translation, Memory and Dialogue, at the Japan ICU University, Tokyo, Japan, June 2-4, 2016.

Reflecting on Representation, Silences and the Limits of the Visible at the Living Truth in the Americas Symposium, Rutgers Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Newark, NJ, April 8th, 2016.

Translating Memory from Exhibition to Digital Collection: Reflections from Guatemala Después, Conference on Translating Memory and Remembrance across the Disciplines, co-presented with Nelesi Rodriguez, SUNY New Paltz, October 8-9, 2015.

Examining Historical Memory of Contested Spaces through Curatorial Research and Participatory Filmmaking, Rethinking Peace Studies II: Memory, Japan ICU Foundation, New York City, March 27-28, 2015.

Building Documentary Cultures with Urban Youth and Their Communities in Neoliberal Times, Conference on Codes & Modes, The Character of Documentary Culture, Hunter College, New York City, November 7-9, 2014.

Rethinking Mobile Ubiquity and Participatory Media in Contested Spaces: Mobile Phones, Video Drones and Urban Projections. Conference on Ubiquity, Mobility, Globality: Charting Directions in Mobile Phone Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, November 6-7, 2014.

Collective (Dis)engagement, What Now? Collaboration and Collectivity Symposium, Art in General in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, April 4-5, 2014.

Opening Keynote: Engaged Making, Play and Participatory Media for Creative Resilience among Palestinian Youth, Palestinian Youth: The Forms of Everyday Engagements, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine, November 18-19, 2013.

Participatory Media and Creative Resilience among Adolescents in Contested Spaces. Media Trends 2013, Children and the Media: Challenging Intersections, Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland, April 8-10, 2013.

Palestine and Cuba: Resistance and Revolution (Under Repression),The Revolution Recodified: Digital Culture and the Public Sphere in Cuba. Symposium, The New School and New York University, March 15-17, 2013.

Youth Development and Creative Resilience: Experiences from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Envision Arabia Summit, Arab Development Initiative (ADI), New York University, New York City, October 8, 2012.

Civic Media and Creative Youth Activism in the Middle East, Visual Activism and Social Justice in the Visual Sociology Thematic Group (TG05), The Second ISA Forum of Sociology on Social Justice and Democratization, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 1-4, 2012.

Closing Keynote: International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC 2012), University of Bremen, Germany, June 15, 2012.

Media and Resilience in Conflict,Harnessing C4D innovations: Transforming the lives of marginalized girls through ICTs, 56^thCommission on the Status of Women. UNICEF House, New York, March 2, 2012.

Opening Keynote: Remixing Culture and Social Change. The Remixed Media Festival, DUMBO, Brooklyn, October 22, 2011.

Youth DIY Cultures and Participatory Learning in Conflict: Lessons from Digital Storytelling and Kite Cultures in the Palestinian Territories. Mobility Shifts: An International Future of Learning Summit, The New School, New York, October 13, 2011.

Media and Resilience in Conflict, International Conference on Children and War: Past and Present, University of Salzburg, Austria, September 30 – October 2, 2010.

Voices Beyond Walls: Digital Storytelling & Media Programs with Palestinian Youth, World Bank Conference on Conflict and Fragile States, Innovation Fair, Cape Town, South Africa, April 12-15, 2010.

Youth & Media: Identity, Expression & Activism, Symposium on Information Evolution in the Arab World, Georgetown University, Washington DC, March 22-23, 2010.

Collective Representations in Transitional Territories: Experiences with Marginalized Youth in Jerusalem, Arts in the One World Conference, Brown University, Providence, March 19-20, 2010.

Public Presentations

Zona Intervenida: Performance as Memory, Transforming Contested Spaces, Rethinking Peace: Discourse, Memory, Translation, and Dialogue, Book Launch Panel & Reception at The New School, 65 West 11th Street, New York, May 8, 2019.

When Experimental Storytelling Provokes Social Inquiry, with New School faculty Erica Fae, Abou Farman, Melanie Crean, and Caveh Zadeh, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, January 22, 2017.

Introduction and Talk Back for film premieres on the Mai Masri Retrospective and Kamal Aljafari’s Recollection, Boston Palestine Film Festival (BPFF), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, October 15-16, 2016.

Sacred Soundwalks in Kathmandu, Kailash Cartographies Symposium, The India China Institute, The New School and ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal, March 19-26, 2016.

Film Preview and Talk: Zona Intervenida // Colectivo Andén, Independent Curators International (ICI), ICI Curatorial Hub, New York City, October 14, 2014.

Premiere of Flying Paper film and briefing on the current situation in Gaza, United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights, UN Headquarters, New York, May 21, 2014 (Webcast Live).Invited panelist with Mr. Robert Turner, Director of Operations for the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, Ms. Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, and Ms. Maria Rubiales de Chamorro, Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the UN and Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Invisible Borders and Participatory Documentaries in Contested Spaces. MIT Open Documentary Lab, MIT Center for Civic Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, October 28, 2013.

Tactical Design and Activism in New York City and Moscow, MIT Center for Civic Media, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 2, 2012.

Making Sense of Occupy: Visualizing Citizen Media and Data in New York City, The Strelka Institute, Moscow, July 19, 2012.

Flying Paper and Voices Beyond Walls: Understanding participatory cultures among youth in conflict through documentary film.Documentary, Ethnography, and Art Workshop, Department of Anthropology, Temple University, April 19, 2012.

Participatory DIY Mapping as Tactical Intervention in Contested Spaces, Geospectives Seminar Series, Dept. of Geography & McGill School of Environment, McGill University, Nov. 24, 2011.

Media and Resilience: Creative DIY Cultures and Civic Agency among Marginalized Youth,MIT Center for Civic Media, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, January 11, 2011.

Re-imagining Gaza: Sensory Explorations and Participatory Media. Talk and Film Screening, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Cambridge, October29, 2010.

Arts as Intervention in Contested Spaces: Participatory Media and Urban Renewal, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, October21, 2010.

Creative Empowerment of Marginalized Youth in Refugee Camps, Cultural Agents Initiative and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, October 26, 2009.

Interaction Design in the Real World: Mediating Technology/Arts Interventions int he Everyday Social Spaces of the City, TEC-Lab, University of Lugano, Switzerland, September 16, 2009.

Invited Lectures & Seminars

Conducting HCI Research in the Wild: Distributed Cognition and Situational Awareness in Human Centered Design. Talk hosted for a special seminar series at the Department of Computer Science in Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, May 27, 2019.

Sensory Ethnography and Participatory Research: Rethinking Human-Centered Design. WeWork, 115 W 18th Street, New York, November 30, 2018.

Soundwalking as Sensory Ethnography in Sacred Landscapes, invited guest lecture for course “Philosophy and Images”, hosted by Chiara Bottici, Philosophy Department, New School for Social Research, The New School, April 11, 2017.

Walking through Sacred Landscapes: Encountering Soundscapes in Kailash, invited guest lecture for course “Not to Scale: On Sacred Mountains”, hosted by Mark Larrimore, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, February 7, 2017.

Curating and the Community: Experiences from the Guatemala Después Exhibition and Digital Collection, invited guest lecture co-presented with Nelesi Rodriguez for course “Museums and Community”, hosted by Glenn Wharton, Museum Studies Department, New York University (NYU), November 16, 2016.

TRIPLE PLAY: Three films on Kashmir, film screening and panel discussion on Kashmir with award-winning Indian filmmaker Sarah Singh,The India China Institute, The New School, October 27, 2016.

Walking through Sacred Landscapes,Kailash Sacred Landscapes Expedition and Seminars, The India China Institute, The New School and ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal and Mt. Kailash, Tibet, July 12 – August 8, 2016.

Guatemala Después Digital Collection,Special Closed-Door Think Tank event hosted by theIndependent Curators International (ICI), ICI Curatorial Hub, New York City, July 7, 2016.

Disaster Capitalism (film screening) and conversation with acclaimed Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein, School of Media Studies, The New School, October 5, 2015.

Creative Inquiry of Invisible Borders and Contested Sites through Civic Media and Performance-based Films, Arts and Humanities in Climate Change, The India China Institute, Shimla, India, July 30 – August 4, 2015.

Guatemala Después: Rethinking Curatorial Practices in Contested Spaces,School of Media Studies Brown Bag Research Seminar, The New School, May 5, 2015.

Guatemala Después: Rethinking Curatorial Practices in Contested Spaces, Parsons Curatorial Design Research Lab (CDRL), The New School, March 13, 2015.

Celebrating Contemporary Guatemalan Art: Conversations with Artists & Curators, Invited Panelist, Independent Curators International (ICI), The New School, March 6, 2015.

Hackathons and DIY Urbanism,invited guest lecture for course “Creating Knowledge through Research Methods”, hosted by Jilly Traganou, Theories of Urban Practice, The New School, October 6, 2014.

Guatemala Después: Creative Inquiry through Art, Media and Performance, School of Media Studies Brown Bag Research Seminar, The New School, May 6, 2014.

Contested Identities and Participatory Research: A case study with Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, co-presented with Emily Breitkopf, Psychology Speaker Series, New School for Social Research, March 5, 2014.

The Time That Remains (film screening) and conversation with acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, Documentary Studies Program, School of Media Studies, The New School, April 24, 2014.

Open Cooperative Models for Online Peer Review, Faculty Symposium on What is Peer Review?, Parsons The New School for Design, The New School, February 28, 2014.

Invisible Borders: Rethinking Moscow thorough Participatory Urban Research,School of Media Studies Brown Bag Research Seminar, The New School, October 15, 2013.

Hackathons and MikroActs: Tactical Design & Participatory Research in NYC and Moscow,School of Media Studies Brown Bag Research Seminar, The New School, December 11, 2012.

OccupyData Hackathons: Visualizing Political Activism, invited guest lecture co-presented with Christo de Klerkfor course “Politics of Visual Display and Representation”, hosted by Olga Kopenkina, Media Culture and Communication (MCC), New York University (NYU), April 18, 2012.

Conducting Participatory Media Research with At-Risk Youth, School of Media Studies Brown Bag Research Seminar, The New School, February 12, 2012.

Media and Resilience in Conflict: Participatory Media and Pilot Study with Palestinian Adolescents in West Bank & Gaza, Psychology Speaker Series, New School for Social Research, November 30, 2011.