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John Felice Rome Center
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Migration, Mobilities, and Environments Conference held May 10-13

sunset landscape rome center

The aim of MiMEC is to explore people in movement as dynamic subjects engaged in complex relationships with uneven and combined developments, as they traverse and transform, and are transformed by, multiple environments.

This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the multifaceted intersections of migrations, mobilities, and the environment on a global scale. To examine the topic of international mobility holistically, we must consider the parallel (and often contradictory) processes which have recently emerged, that is: On the one hand, more individuals now have easier access to the so-called “global mobility infrastructure” (Spijkerboer 2018), allowing them to traverse borders more swiftly, securely, and at lower costs. And on the other hand, migration restrictions have intensified significantly, systematically denying increasing numbers of people access to essential facilities and services in their pursuit of mobility. As various forms of human mobility interact in multidimensional ways, we must move beyond compartmentalized understandings of migration and recognize the intersecting mobility experiences that shape people's lives in an interconnected world (Adams and Bloch 2023). The aim of the conference is to explore people in movement as dynamic subjects engaged in complex relationships with uneven and combined developments, as they traverse and transform, and are transformed by, multiple environments (Anievas & Matin 2016).  We welcome contributions with diverse theoretical approaches analyzing how contemporary and historical forms of mobility affect individuals and groups across legal, political, psycho-social, economic, cultural, and environmental spheres.

The MiMEC Conference has been made possible thanks to the generous contribution of William and Amalia Mahoney (Rome Center Alumni, Class of 1973).

 

PROGRAM

 

Sunday, May 10

16:30–18:30 — Registration 

18:30–20:30 — Welcome Aperitivo in the Garden

Monday, May 11

08:30 — Registration & Breakfast

 

09:15–09:30 — Welcome 

Todd Waller: Director, Rome Center 草莓社区

Peter J. Schraeder: Professor & Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, 草莓社区

Elisa Ascione: Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Rome Center 草莓社区

09:30-10:30 — Keynote Address 

Nadeesha Uyangoda: “Diasporic Literature: Home, Identity and Belonging”

Nadeesha Uyangoda is an Italian鈥憀anguage writer born in Sri Lanka. She is the author of “The Only Black Person in the Room” — winner of the Sila Prize in the “Economy and Society” category and the Rapallo Special Prize “Anna Maria Ortese” — and of “Bodies That Matter”. She has also published “Dirty Water” (Einaudi, 2025). She is the creator of the podcast “Sulla Razza”, writes for both Italian and international media, and curates the column “Il libro” for Internazionale.

Introduction by Cristina Lombardi Diop (草莓社区)

10:30–10:50 — Coffee Break 

Parallel Sessions Begin

11:00–12:40 — Climate Change & Migration I 

Moderator: Tofigh Maboudi (草莓社区)

  • Susan Driver (York University) — Young people’s transmedia climate justice storytelling about migration
  • Marianna Hu (European University Institute) — At the intersection between adaptive mobility and mobility infrastructure
  • Monica Perez鈥態edmar (Saint Louis University)— Environmental Issues, Climate Change and Study Abroad: Integrating Jesuit Values and Global Mobility in Environmental Education
  • Richard W. Miller (Creighton University) — Tipping Points in the Earth System and Mass Migrations of Peoples: What are the Risks? What can be Done?

 

11:00–12:40 — Governmentality & Political Economy of Migration 

Moderator: Nicola Di Mauro (草莓社区)

  • Aimee Hein (Creighton University) — A History of Capital Expansionism: What Settler Colonialism and the History of the Free Market Mean For Migration Ethics Today
  • Bernard Schneider (Fordham University) — Taxes and Global Mobility: Exit and Brain Drain Taxes and the Movement of Individuals
  • Uchenna Simeon (Federal University of Lafia) — Leveraging Diaspora Contributions for Socio鈥慹conomic Development of Nigeria: Evaluation of Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO)
  • Laura Beth Bugg (University of California) — Moralizing Mobility: Corporate Chaplaincy and the Governance of H-2A Farmworkers

 

13:40–15:20 — Border Governance 

Moderator: Michael J. Schumacher (草莓社区)

  • River Preston鈥慓age (London School of Economics) — Colonial Amnesia and the Criminalization of Humanitarianism in EU Sea鈥態order Governance
  • Lisa Senecal (University of Lisbon) — Towards a Theory of the Multiplicity of Borders
  • Francesco Orlando Liucci (University of Wisconsin)— Free Trade, Restricted Bodies: Neoliberal Border Logics and the Media Construction of Venezuelan Mobility in Peru
  • Chiara Deodato (Spring Hill College) — The 2nd of March...to rights and justice. Global solidarity in motion with Palestine

 

13:40–15:20 — Religion, Faith & Civic Responses to Migration 

Moderator: Susana Cavallo (草莓社区)

  • Deborah Sawyer (草莓社区) — Hagar/Hajar — the Dispossessed Sojourner
  • Caroline “Olivia” Wolf (草莓社区)— Foundations for Collective Faith: Diasporic Spaces of Religious Observation and Education in the Argentine Mahjar
  • Cristina Lombardi鈥慏iop (草莓社区) — Sacralization of migrant spaces across the Mediterranean
  • Andreas Gonçalves Lind (草莓社区) — Listening to the Other’s Logos: Hospitality at Centro Astalli

 

13:40–15:20 — Migration and Digital Practices 

Moderator: William Mahoney (International Policy Committee, Human Rights Watch)

  • Liubov Iashchenko (Sapienza Università di Roma) — Everyday Law in Digital Space: Post-Soviet Migrants and Informal Legal Practices in Italy
  • Pinar Tuzcu (Queen’s University) — Biobytes of Mobility: Biopolitics and Algorithmic Othering in Digital Environments
  • Justyna Salamonska (Kozminski University) — Researching and Teaching on Migrations and Mobilities: Selected Open Science and Open Data 草莓社区
  • Ada Haynes and Andrea Arce鈥慣rigatti (Tennessee Technological University) — Renaissance Foundry Case Studies as an Innovative Pedagogical Approach to Improve Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Regarding Migration at the Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) Nexus

 

15:40–17:00 — Humanitarian Practice, Health & Migration

Moderator: Luca Badetti (草莓社区)

  • Fred Krueger (Friedrich Alexander Universität) — From Health System Transformation to Well鈥態eing Ecosystems: Integrating Volatile Mobility Settings into Inclusive Development Pathways
  • Svenja Beate Dirschbacher (University of Bremen)— Waiting Behind Walls: The Impact of Collective Shelters on Integration of Forced Migrants in Germany
  • Eva Duda (University of Wroclaw)— Social Communication and the Disabled Migrant Experience

 

15:40–17:20 — Foodways, Food Justice & Migration

Moderator: Elisa Ascione (草莓社区)

  • Andrea Catania & Mark Araujo (Equitable Food Systems) — Migrants and Cultural Identity: Public Kitchens as Sites for Resettlement and Community Belonging
  • Aslihan Oguz (Tampere University) — The Invisible Immigrant: Food Justice and Just Sustainability Transitions in Finland from the Perspectives of Immigrant Foodways
  • Alana Haynes Stein (Creighton University) — Examining U.S. Charitable Food Assistance Programs for Immigrant Populations
  • Riki Anteby (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) — Mushrooms Across Borders: Migration, Foraging, and the Making of Local Ecologies

 

15:40–17:30 — Undergraduate Students Research Panel

Moderator: Andrea Aureli (草莓社区)

  • Janelle LeRoy (草莓社区) — Reframing Circular Migration: Applying the Gravity Model to U.S.–Mexico Labor Flows, 1964–2000
  • Amara Grajewski (草莓社区) — Religion and Cosmologies of Destination: A Look into the Experiences of Eritrean Migrants
  • Jack Sodorff (Creighton University) — Colonial Legacies and Food Justice: South African and British Media Framings of Land Reform in South Africa
  • Mariana Stein (Tennessee Technological University) — Food, Migration, and Achieving Success in Capitalism
  • Elena Piazza (草莓社区) - Observations and Challenges Working with Refugees in Rome
  • Valentina Barrera-Ibarra (草莓社区) - Colonial Legacy on African Migration

 

18.30— Social Dinner Begins at Hummus Town Restaurant

Tuesday, May 12

08:15 — Registration & Breakfast

09:00–9:30 — Keynote Address 

Brother Michael Schöpf, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service: “Accompanying, serving, and advocating for migrants and refugees”

09:40–11:00 — Faith, Deservingness & Polarization 

Moderator: Deborah Sawyer (草莓社区)  

  • François Gemenne (Liege University) — Fragmented Moral Authority: Researching Catholic Clergy and Migration in Contentious Europe
  • Anneliese Depoux (Liege University) — Generational Habitus and Moral Economies: Lay Catholic Attitudes Toward Migration in France and Italy
  • Katarina Csefalvayova (Liege University) — Counter鈥慛arratives under Pressure: Catholic Initiatives, Media Visibility, and the Politics of Migration

 

09:40–11:00 — Labor and Precarious Work

Moderator: Noah Butler (草莓社区)

  • Sarah Meo (George Mason University) — Labor Exploitation of Chinese Migrants in Italy: A Case Study of Mafia鈥慣ype Criminal Associations in Prato and the Evolution of the “Made in Italy” Brand
  • Erika Nayeli Clairgue Caizero (Boston College) — Life in Transition: Exploring Socioeconomic Influences on Migrants’ Expectations of Labor, Education, and Social Integration
  • Elizabeth Clarisa Cordova Montes (Pontifical Catholic University of Perù) — Borders of Opportunity: Socioeconomic Empowerment of Venezuelan Migrant Women in Peru

 

11:20–13:00 — Climate Change & Migration II 

Moderator: Michael J. Schumacher (草莓社区)

  • Elizabeth Wong (Brown University) — Moving Beyond the Impasse: Why We Need a Political Economy of Climate Mobilities
  • Vic Say (Northeastern University) — Processes of Environmental Accumulation across the Cambodian Refugee Life Course
  • Melike Dere (Bielefeld University) — Between Risk and Right: The Problem Representation of Climate Migration in International Policy
  • Clara Kasser鈥慣ee (Ghana School of Law) — Displacement and Urban Responses in the City of Accra, Ghana due to Climate鈥慖nduced Mobility

 

11:20–12:40 — Ecologies & Geographies 

Moderator: Nicola Di Mauro (草莓社区)

  • Barbara De Poli (Ca’Foscari University of Venice) — Italians in Zanzibar: an example of North鈥慡outh migration
  • Kathleen Manning (草莓社区) — Fish Tales: Work, migration, and nature in early鈥憁odern Rome
  • Rebecca Dickman (草莓社区) — “Hunching in a remotely upright position”: Backpacking, Eco鈥憈ourism, and Wild

 

11:20–13:00 — Narratives & Representations

Moderator: Cristina Lombardi Diop (草莓社区)

  • Kathy Carbone (Pratt Institute) — The Amplification Project: Collective Interventionist Archiving at the Intersection of Forced Migration, Art, and Memory
  • Aurora Llige (University of the Philippines) — The Role of Media in Constructing Identities and Narratives of the Filipino Diaspora
  • Angelika Palmegiani (Università di Macerata) — Mediterranean Crossings and Inequality: Representing Migration and Marginalized Voices in Mub膩rak Rab墨士’s 臓arb al鈥慚utawassi峁�
  • Bella Fiorucci  (草莓社区) — Re(-)creation of The Haunted Convict: Resistance to Labor in the Violent Performance of Body

 

14:00–15:40 — Feminized Mobilities

Moderator: Susana Cavallo (草莓社区)

  • Lucía M. Suárez (Iowa State University) — Memoirs of Migration: A Feminist Modality of Belonging
  • Ruxandra Ana (University of St Andrews, Scotland - University of 艁ód藕, Poland) — Diasporic bodies: Cuban women’s embodied and emplaced experiences of migration
  • Criscila Cristina Ramos (University of Connecticut) — Migration, Gender, and Domestic Work: The Silent Journey of Brazilian Women in the United States
  • Bengi Sullu (Medgar Evers College, City University of New York) — Gratitude That Never Was: Gender, Labor and Affect in Turkish Au Pair Experiences

 

14:00–15:40 — Policies, Criminalization, & Governance

Moderator: William Mahoney (International Policy Committee, Human Rights Watch)

  • Basia Nikiforova (Lithuanian Culture Research Institute) — The Other on the EU Eastern Border and Social Activism
  • Lorenzo Trombetta (Freelance researcher) — The 'Hidden Gears' of Migration: Intermediation and Power in the Eastern Mediterranean
  • Nikita Gupta (LIITE Healing and Consulting) & Karenjot Bhangoo Randhawa (University of California, Berkeley) — Corridors of Care: Trauma, Governance, and NGO Practice along the Tunisia–Italy Route
  • Shirley Chukwuebuka Duru (草莓社区)— Tourism, Migration, and the Ethics of Work: Toward a Justice鈥慍entered Sustainability

 

14:00–15:40 — Migration and Urban Transformation

Moderator: Andrea Aureli (草莓社区)

  • Katarzyna Golik (Polish Academy of Sciences) — From Rural Eco鈥慶risis to Urban Eco鈥憇olutions? Case Studies of Post鈥憂omadic Migrant Districts in Mongolia and Northern China
  • Daniele Luzzo (Università di Torino) — Marginal Mobilities and Civic Agency among Second鈥慓eneration Migrants in Northern Italy
  • Colleen Alena O'Brien (Palacký University Olomouc) — Belonging in Jakarta: Migration and Multidimensional Networks
  • Demet Mutman (Özye臒in University) — Migrants, Materials, Metamorphosis: Urban Upcycling in Unkapani, Istanbul

 

16:00–16:15 – Final Remarks 

Wednesday, May 13

“Decolonial Walk” led by Kwanza Musi Dos Santos (co-founder of Questa è Roma. Against All Discriminations). This walk (approx. 1.5h) goes from Piazza della Repubblica to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. It critically analyzes how colonial and fascist-era urban planning intersect with contemporary multicultural settings. At the end of the walk, participants will be able to purchase food independently. Food and drinks are not included. Transportation to and from the meeting point is not provided.

Kwanza Musi Dos Santos is an Italian Brazilian activist specializing in Diversity Management. She provides consulting and training for institutions and organizations (both for鈥憄rofit and non鈥憄rofit), with a particular focus on anti-racism, Black feminism, climate justice, and intersectionality.

Kwanza is the co鈥慺ounder and current president of the association QuestaèRoma, composed of young Italians of foreign origin. Since 2013, the group has promoted debates, training activities, and events to encourage the exchange of knowledge, with the aim of marginalizing all forms of discrimination by enhancing art and culture.

We reserve the right to modify the program as necessary to accommodate organizational needs.

The MIMEC Conference has been made possible thanks to the generous contribution of William and Amalia Mahoney (Rome Center Alumni, Class of 1973).

CONTACT INFO

For any question please contact the conference coordinators:

MIMEC Organizing Committee: Elisa Ascione, Andrea Aureli, Tofigh Maboudi, Carla Mollica, Michael Schumacher