SOC Cultural Studies 2026 Student Symposium
Reimagined Futures: Anti-Colonial World-making & Cultural Practice
Friday, April 3, 2026 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM EDT
Fenwick Library, 2001 (Main Reading Room)
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff: You are cordially invited to the SOC Cultural Studies 2026 Student Symposium: FRIDAY, 3 APRIL 2026 @ the FENWICK LIBRARY Main Reading Room (2001) from 10:00 am - 4:30 pm.
Lunch will be provided.
This year's theme is Reimagined Futures: Anti-Colonial World-making & Cultural Practice, and our Keynote Speaker is Dr. Talawa Adodo from Spelman College. He will share his presentation after lunch, and it is entitled: Translation: A Cultural Ting! An Exercise in Pan-Afrikan Translation.
We have three panels that include MA and PhD students:
Panel 1: Technologies of Governance and the Struggle for Justice (10:00 am)
Presenter: Md Samzir Ahmed, Prospects and Dangers of AI Policing in Postcolonial Democracies: The Case Study of Bangladesh
Presenter: Shireen Ahmad, Climate Resilience and Conflict
Presenter: Muna Al Taweel, Public Space as a Site of Gendered Discipline: Honor-Based Violence in Jordan Reconsidered
Presenter: Maya Ruffin, Tensions of Survival: Worldmaking in the Black Church and its Responses
Panel 2: Anti-Colonial Praxis and Radical Worldmaking (11:15 am)
Presenter: Dominique Winters, Black Radical Traditions: Worldmaking through Resistance and Expression
Presenter: Regine Romain, The Brooklyn Photo Salon: Creative Praxis and the Politics of Belonging
Presenter: Bianca Mońa, Radical Narratives: The Artworks of Bahamians April Bey and Gio Swaby
Panel 3: Performing Identity: Spectacle, Sounds and Symbols (3:15 pm)
Presenter: Sophia Xiangyan Xiong, Gendered Authenticity: Papi Jiang, Confidence Culture, and the Spectacle of Chinese Social Media
Presenter: Camila Campos Costa, Collectivity, Kinship and Temporality in Brazilian Rap
Presenter: Soojung Paek & Rachel Williams, K? Unpacking the National, Racial, and Cultural Stakes of a Single Letter from K-Pop
Please register here.
Attendees can participate virtually here --> Zoom ID: 934 7036 2793 and Link: https://gmu.zoom.us/j/93470362793
We look forward to seeing you there!
