Public Speaking

Climate Migration

Mass Incarceration

Scholar Activism

Invited Talks


Detention Empire: Reagan's War on Immigrants and the Seeds of Resistance.

UCSD, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies and UCLA, Center for the Study of International Migration, January 19, 2024.


Migration Stories and Public History.

UC Irvine Department of History, October 25, 2023.


What is it Going to Take? Environmental Disturbance.

Moderator, Levine Museum of the New South and UNC Charlotte Atkins Library, September 26, 2023.


Climate Change and Constitutional Rights.

Constitution Day speaker, UNC Charlotte, September 18, 2023.


What is it Going to Take? Mass Incarceration.

Moderator, Levine Museum of the New South and Davidson College, September 18, 2023.


Detention Stories.

Lecture, Department of American Culture and Humanities, University of Michigan, March 16, 2023.


Great Decisions Topic: Who are Climate Refugees?

Senior Scholars at Queens, January 27, 2023.


Living in the State of Detention.
Immigration is Political! Activist-Engaged Research Working Toward Immigrant Social Justice, UC Davis, April 28, 2022.


Climate Migration. 

Environmental Humanities Speaker Series, University of Virginia, February 18, 2022.


State of the Field--Migrant Incarceration

Roundtable Discussion, American Historical Association annual meeting, New Orleans, January 7, 2022.


Climate Change, COVID-19, and Border Abolition. 

Open Borders Conference, Free Migration Project, November 6, 2021.


Climate Refugee Stories: Building an Archive of Resilience

Migration Research Network, UNC Charlotte, September 21, 2021.


History as Activism: Stories from Immigration Detention. 

Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights, Harvard University, February 10, 2020.

Mass Incarceration in the Black and Latinx Community. 

Harvard University, April 9, 2019.

Who are ‘Climate Refugees?’: Climate Change, Migration, and Borders.

Open Borders Conference, The New School, New York, NY, October 19, 2019.

Immigration: Current Issues in Immigration Detention

Martin Luther King, Jr. Teach-In and Training: Progressing Towards Justice in Turbulent Times, UC Irvine School of Law, January 12, 2019.

 

Legacies of Reagan’s Cold War on Immigrants: Resistance and the Rise of a Detention Regime. 

Fall 2018 Cold War Seminar Series, The Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, November 29, 2018.

 

Narratives of Resistance: Combating Intergenerational Violence, the Stigma of Criminalization, and the Prison Industrial Complex.

Colloquium, UC Irvine, November 2018.

 

Invisible Bodies: Immigration Crisis and Private Prisons Since the Reagan Era. 

Global American Studies Presentations at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University, September 28, 2018.

 

Climate Refugee Stories: Building the Road to Resilience. 

Project Launch Event, UC Irvine Community Resilience Projects, May 31, 2018.  

 

Climate Refugee Stories: Historical Approaches to Climate Change. 

UC Irvine Department of Earth System Science, February 2, 2018.

 

US Immigration Detention: History and the Power of Storytelling. 

Soka University, January 12, 2018.


"You Should Have the Body": Readings on Jennings v. Rodriguez

Panel Discussion, SCOTUS Theater, San Francisco, December 16, 2017.


Humanizando la Deportación/Humanizing Deportation. 

Project Launch Event, UC Davis, November 14, 2017.

 

America’s Detention Crisis: History and the Power of Storytelling

UC Irvine, May 9, 2017.

 

Immigration Detention: Sanctuary and the Power of Storytelling.

Religion and Public Life Inaugural Lecture. Institute for Religion, Education, and Public Policy. California State University Bakersfield, March 30, 2017.

The Power of Storytelling: Integrating Digital Storytelling in Teaching and Research. Faculty Panel “From Theory to Practice,” California State University at Long Beach, March 22, 2017.

 

America’s Detention Crisis: History and the Power of Storytelling. California State University at Los Angeles, March 3, 2017.

 

The Ban at Home. Faculty Panel Discussion, UC Irvine School of Humanities, February 22, 2017.

 

Challenging Immigration Detention: History and the Power of Storytelling. UC Davis Department of Sociology, February 2, 2017.

 

The World of Academic Publishing and A Historical Look at US Foreign Relations. Lamar Community College, Colorado, January 3, 2017.

 

Challenging Immigration Detention: History and the Power of Storytelling. Center for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation, Bergen Community College, November 14, 2016.

Challenging Immigration Detention: The Power of Storytelling. El Camino del Inmigrante, Seal Beach United Methodist Church, August 27, 2016.


Dignity Not Detention

Press Conference hosted by California State Senator Ricardo Lara, April 1, 2016.

Teaching Immigration: Migration, Citizenship, and Identity in Postwar America. Teaching American History Institute, Orange County Department of Education ACCESS, Santa Ana, December 4, 2013 and Saddleback Valley School District, Mission Viejo, CA, August 30, 2013.

Workshops and Conference Papers

 



US Immigration Prisons, Environmental Racism, and Border Abolition in an Era of Climate

Change.

Latin American Studies Association annual meeting. Bogotá, Colombia, June 13, 2024.

 

Dismantling Toxic Detention: Towards a Critical Climate Refugee Studies Approach.

Organization of American Historians annual meeting. New Orleans, LA, April 11, 2024.


Weaving Immigrant Voices into our Museums.

North Carolina Museums Council annual meeting. Cherokee, NC, April 8, 2024.


US Immigration Prisons, Extractivism, and Border Abolition in an Era of Climate Change.

SECOLAS annual meeting. Asheville, NC, April 6, 2024.


Rooting History to a Place: Place- and Water-Based Approaches to Environmental History.

Roundtable, American Historical Association annual meeting. San Francisco, CA, January 5, 2024.


Resisting Toxic Detention: US Immigration Prisons and Environmental Racism in an Era of

Climate Change.

Western Historical Association annual meeting. Los Angeles, CA, October 26, 2023.


Climate Refugee Stories: Charlotte Histories, Just Futures.

National Council on Public History annual meeting. Atlanta, GA, April 13, 2023.


Encampments, Mobility, and Racialized Space in the 20th-Century Latinx West.

Commentator, Organization of American Historians annual meeting. Los

Angeles, CA, March 30, 2023.


Preparing for Graduate School: How to Write Your Statement of Purpose.

Workshop, UNC Charlotte Department of History, April 21, 2022.


“This Nation’s Fourth Border”: The Caribbean Basin Initiative in Reagan’s Cold War on Immigrants

SECOLAS annual meeting, Charlotte, NC, March 12, 2022.


State of the Field—Migrant Incarceration

Roundtable, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 7, 2022.


Climate Change, COVID-19, and Border Abolition. 

Open Borders Conference, Free Migration Project, November 6, 2021.


Climate Refugee Stories: Building an Archive of Resilience. 

Shifting Climates – Shifting People Conference, ILIFF School of Theology, Denver, CO, October 21, 2021.


Climate Refugee Stories. 

Workshop, Change in Motion: Environment, Migration, and Mobilities, UC Berkeley, April 2021.


Reagan's Cold War on Immigrants: Counterinsurgency and the Rise of a Detention Regime

Panel "Centering War in Immigration History," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, April 2021.


Climate Refugee Stories: Building an Archive of Resistance. 

Confronting the Climate Crisis With Systemic Alternatives in the Age of Coronavirus. UC Santa Barbara, November, 2020.


Building Unity in the Mass Incarceration Crisis: Centering Black Migrant Experiences in the Fight for Abolition

Webinar, Harvard University, May 14, 2020.

QTGNC Stories from Immigration Detention and Abolitionist Imaginaries, 1980-Present. 

American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI, November 7, 2019.

Crises and Caravans: Resisting Reagan’s Cold War on Refugees. 

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, Arlington, VA, June 22, 2019.

Reagan’s Cold War on Immigrants: Resistance and the Rise of a Detention Regime. 

Emerging Immigration Scholars Conference, UCLA, February 16, 2019.

Climate Refugee Stories: Environmental Justice Detained

A Critical Refugee Studies Conference on Time and Space, UCLA, April 2018.

Storytelling to Abolish Immigration Detention from the Inside-Out.

Queering Immigration Conference, New York City, September 2017.

 

Activist Engagement: Historians Strike Back. 

Roundtable, Western Association of Women Historians Conference, San Diego, April 2017.

Legacies of Reagan’s Cold War on Immigrants: Immigration Detention and the Power of Storytelling

A Critical Refugee Studies Conference on Militarism and Migration Conference, UC San Diego, April 2017.

 

Making the Connections: Public Interpretations of Incarceration.

Annual Meeting of the National Council on Public History, Indianapolis, IN, April 2017.

Doing History is Climate Action? Collaborating with Non-Profits on Storytelling and Public Education Projects. 

UC-CSU Knowledge Action Network for Transformative Climate and Sustainability Education and Action, Nearly Carbon-Neutral Conference, Spring 2017.

Immigration Detention Storytelling and Academia and Activism.

Workshops, Soros Justice Fellows Conference, Open Society Foundations, Phoenix, AZ, July 2016.

 

Compassion Fatigue: The Reagan Administration’s Rejection of Mariel Cuban, Haitian, and Salvadoran Refugees

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, June 2016.

 

Amplifying Voices from Detention: Digital Tools, Online Strategy and Reporter Outreach

Workshop, Detention Watch Network Annual Conference, Baltimore, April 2016.

 

Active Resistance: Reagan’s New Security State and the New Underground Railroad. 

American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, October 2015.

 

A Recession-Proof Industry": Reagan’s Immigration Crisis and the Birth of the Neoliberal Security State

Blurring the Border: Deporting Denizens in the 21st Century Conference. University of California at Merced, April 2015.

 

“The Emergency Nature of the Problem": Ronald Reagan’s Latin American Immigration Crisis and the Birth of America’s Private Prison Industry

Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, April 2014.

 

“The Man with the Badge Holds it Back”: Ronald Reagan’s Immigration Crisis and Contingency Planning Along the US-Mexico Border.

Innovation in Borderland Regions Conference, UC Santa Barbara, April 2014.

 

“Give Us Liberty, or We Will Tear the Place Apart": Resistance and Control in Immigration Detention during the Reagan Administration.

New Directions in Cuban Studies Conference, University of Miami, March 2014.

 

“The Emergency Nature of the Problem": Contingency Planning Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Social Science History Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, November 2013.

 

Containing Foreign Bodies: The Detention of Mariel Cuban Refugees at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, 1980-1982

Cuban Heritage Collection Graduate Fellows Colloquium, University of Miami, September 2011.

 

“Discouraging Hazardous Illegal Immigration to the US": The Reagan Administration’s Extension of Executive Authority through Immigrant Detention and Interdiction

Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Annual Meeting, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, May  2010.

 

“Nobody Wants These People": Reagan’s Immigration Crisis and the Detention of Mariel Cuban Refugees at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, June 2009.

 

Detention and the Business of Immigration. Workshop.

“Nobody Wants These People": Reagan’s Immigration Crisis and the Detention of Mariel Cuban Refugees at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. 

States of Captivity Conference, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, February 2009.

 

Tracking ICE’s Enforcement Agenda

Webinar, Detention Watch Network, February 2008.

 

Irish-America’s Role in Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland

The New England Region of the American Conference for Irish Studies, University of Connecticut, Storrs, October 2006.

Webinar: Building Unity in the Mass Incarceration Crisis: Centering Black Migrant Experiences in the Fight for Abolition. With Aly Wane, Guerline Jozef, and Laura Cuellar Cortezar, Harvard University, May 2020.

Doing History is Climate Action? Collaborating with Non-Profits on Storytelling and Public Education Projects. Nearly-Carbon-Neutral Conference, UC Santa Barbara, June 2017.