Welcome to the NYU Migration Network
February Digest
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Here are some updates and upcoming migration and mobility events for this month.
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Spring 2026 Public Conversation SeriesHeld monthly over the semester, these public conversations bring together scholars, artists, and practitioners for cross-disciplinary exchanges to develop and refine understandings of migration and mobility, its histories, and its political stakes.
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| The Remarque Institute Inaugural Mosse Lecture and an NYU Migration Network Public Conversation
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When: Friday, February 13 — 5:00pm - 6:00pm EST
Who:
Hisham Matar spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his adult life in London. His debut novel, In the Country of Men (2006), was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and The Guardian First Book Award, and won numerous international prizes, including the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and a Commonwealth First Book Award. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published to great acclaim in 2011. His prize-winning memoir, The Return, was published in 2016 and was the recipient of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Jean Stein Award, the Prix du Livre Etranger Inter & Le Journal du Dimanche, the Rathbones Folio Prize, and The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize. It was one of The New York Times’ top 10 books of the year. His latest novel, My Friends, was published in 2024 and longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction, and won the 2024 Orwell Prize for political fiction as well as the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Matar’s work has been translated into thirty languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Professor Matar is the founder and principal curator of The Barnard International Artists Series, a forum for considering the world through the works of living artists.
Daniel Mendelsohn is an internationally bestselling author, critic, essayist, and translator. Born in New York City in 1960, he received degrees in Classics from the University of Virginia and Princeton. After completing his PhD he moved to New York City, where he began freelance writing full time; since 1991 he has been a prolific contributor of essays, reviews, and articles to many publications, most frequently The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. He has also been a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure and a columnist for The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, and New York magazine, where he was the weekly book critic. In February 2019, he was named Editor-at-Large of the New York Review of Books and the Director of the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, a charitable trust that supports writers of nonfiction, essay, and criticism.
Moderated by Negar Azimi
Negar Azimi is a writer and editor and occasional curator. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the publishing and curatorial project Bidoun, a former fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, a member of the Beirut-based Arab Image Foundation, and a board member of Artists Space. Her essays, criticism, and reportage have appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, Frieze, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times and elsewhere. She studied biology, politics, and anthropology at Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia. With Pati Hertling she organizes the epistolary series Deadlines and Divine Distractions.
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| The Health Impacts of Immigration Policy
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When: Wednesday, March 25 — 5:30pm - 6:30pm EST
Where: NYU Wagner School of Public Service — Main Event Space; 105 East 17th street, New York, NY 10003
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This Public Conversation is presented jointly with the NYU Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
The Aesthetics and Counter-Aesthetics of Immigration Enforcement and Resistance
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When: Thursday, April 16 — 5:30 - 6:30pm EST
Where: NYU Wagner School of Public Service — Main Event Space; 105 East 17th street, New York, NY 10003
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Spring 2026 Speaker Series
During the Spring semester, the NYU Migration Network offers NYU faculty an opportunity to workshop their research with other university faculty and students as a part of the speaker series. These casual lunchtime gatherings are an opportunity for scholars to share their migration and mobility projects, and for their colleagues to learn about their work.
Note: Please RSVP. A light lunch will be provided.
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When: January 28, 12:00–2:00pm EST
Where: NYU Wagner (105 E 17th St), Conference Room - 302
Who:
Isabella Trombetta, Center for European and Mediterranean Studies , and Ellen Noonan, Archives and Public History Program, presenting with project colleagues, Sibylle Fischer, Spanish and Portuguese, and Bryan Zehngut-Willits, History.
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When: February 25 — 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST
Where: NYU Wagner (105 E 17th St), Conference Room - 302
Who:
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In each digest, we will list upcoming events for the month related to the topic of migration that may be of interest to you. Events upcoming this month are below.
If you have an event happening next month, please let us know using the information at the end of this newsletter.
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Tenement Talk: Preparing for the Immigration Journey
Join Glucksman Ireland House NYU Director Kevin Kenny in conversation with co-editor Maddalena Marinari at the Tenement Museum. In their new book, Rituals of Migration: Italians and Irish on the Move, historians Kevin Kenny and Maddalena Marinari explore Irish and Italian traditions when leaving their homeland and arriving in the United States.
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Time: 6:30-8:30pm EST
Where: 103 Orchard Street, YouTube Live
Who: Glucksman Ireland House NYU Director Kevin Kenny in conversation with co-editor Maddalena Marinari at the Tenement Museum.
Cost: For the in-person program, ticket price includes Kenny and Marinari’s book, Rituals of Migration. $25 (includes book); $15 for members (includes book); Free, Suggested Donation of $10 for Virtual Livestream.
Learn More and Register Here
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The Urban Frontier of AI
Drawing on research from the recently launched Urban Institute at NYU Tandon, Professor Maurizio Porfiri demonstrates how we can leverage data science and AI to address these complex urban interdependencies—from climate change and grid stability to the needs of aging populations and economic volatility. This talk reveals how urban science is being used to safeguard grid stability and shape the resilient cities of tomorrow.
Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm EST
Where: 19 Washington Square North, New York
Who: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute in New York featuring speaker, Maurizio Porfiri, Director, NYU Urban Institute.
Learn More and Register Here
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Book Talk | Irvin Ibargüen | Caught in the Current: Mexico’s Struggle to Regulate Emigration, 1940–1980
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Trans Caribbean: Queer and Trans Arts, Rights, and Activism
Trans Caribbean: Queer and Trans Arts, Rights, and Activism brings together activists, artists, and scholars to explore trans rights, embodiment, and community across the Caribbean and the Americas. The daylong program includes two panels—one focused on struggles for rights, recognition, and equality in Colombia, and another examining Trans Caribbean artistic, social, and legal movements—followed by a closing reception with performances.
Date: Friday, February 13th 2026
Time: 11:00 am - 6:00pm EST
Where: Espacio de Culturas, 53 Washington Square South, New York, NY, 10012
Who: The daylong program is made possible with support from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), The Latinx Project, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS), Hemispheric Institute, the Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora (CSAAD), and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Note: Prior registration is required for admission to this event.
Learn More and Register Here
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Book Talk | Jesse M. Keenan | North: The Future of Post-Climate America
Join the Institute for Public Knowledge on Tuesday, February 17 (5:30–7:00 PM) for an event with Jesse M. Keenan, who will discuss, North: The Future of Post-Climate America, a book that examines climate-driven mobility, migration, and the reshaping of American cities and politics, with Amy Chester and Robert Freudenberg.
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Lima Chola: A History of the Great Andean Migration
Learn about how Andean migration beginning in the mid-nineteenth century reshaped Lima’s demography, everyday practices, and political culture in this talk by José Ragas, Assistant Professor of History at the Universidad Católica de Chile.
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm EST
Where: The Great Room (Room 101) - 19 University Place, New York, NY 10003
Who: Presented by the CLACS Faculty Working Group on Racisms in Comparative Perspective.
Note: Prior registration is required for admission to this event.
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Unraveling Textile Bodies: The Dance of the Hummingbird Ndukun
Drawing from torbellino, a dance shaped by Indigenous rhythms and Spanish influences, the performance uses movement and historiographical textile sculptures to explore the fluid intersections of race, nationality, gender, and culture, making visible forgotten and violated bodies. The performance will be followed by a conversation with the artist, moderated by Amalia Uribe Guardiola, on trans-(cultural / border / national / disciplinary) practices in her work, the mechanism of the veil, and the unmaking of the book as a colonial device. Refreshments and drinks will be provided at the end.
Note: Prior registration is required for admission to this event.
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| The Migration Network wants to highlight it all!
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Please share any events, highlights, or other information for the Migration Network by emailing migration-network@nyu.edu.
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Thanks to all of you for your continued engagement with the network. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email migration-network@nyu.edu.
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