Global Urban Studies - Rutgers

A flyer with two text boxes. At the top, white text in a purple box: The Annual Women’s and Gender Studies Symposium Gender, Power, and Political Life Just below that in a magenta text box: Monday, March 23, 2026, 9:30AM–4PM EST Ackerson Hall, Dean’s Lounge, 180 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102 About the symposium: As we confront a global wave of gender backlash and democratic erosion, this symposium brings together scholars to reflect on repression, resistance, and the future of gender politics in the U.S. and beyond. RSVP by March 17 at: https://go.rutgers.edu/a9dbkhdv Program Highlights 10:00 AM | Panel 1 Gender Backlash and Political Life Patterns of Repression and Resistance across Political Contexts 12:00 PM | Lunch & Featured Book Talk with Dr. Marwa Shalaby Varieties of Power: Women’s Political Representation in Arab Parliaments 2:00 PM | Panel 2 Gender Backlash and Academic Life Teaching, Research, and Community under Pressure Open to students, faculty, and community members. Light refreshments provided. A white R sits next to the following text at the bottom: Rutgers–Newark School of Arts and Sciences Women’s and Gender Studies In the bottom right-hand corner is a QR code for registration.

This year's Women’s and Gender Studies Program's symposium gathers scholars and students to examine repression, resistance, and resilience across political contexts in the U.S. and beyond, during a moment of global gender backlash and democratic erosion.

GUS student Roula Seghaier was quoted in a recent piece on The Outpost titled "Migrant and Refugee Exclusion from Healthcare in Tunisia’s Economic Crisis." Read her insights here: theoutpostnews.com/single-post.....

Decoding race, racialization, and racism: making meaning through interviews, photo–elicitation, and visual resonance - American Journal of Cultural Sociology This article offers three methodological and analytical insights to enhance scholars’ analyses of how everyday social actors make meaning of race, racism, and the process of racialization. These insig...

GUS Faculty Member Melissa M. Valle's latest article was published in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. "Decoding race, racialization, and racism: making meaning through interviews, photo–elicitation, and visual resonance" can be found at link.springer.com/article/10.1...

An event flyer. A man in a suit looks at the camera in the foreground. A blurry background seems to be a set of bookshelves. Logos for Rutgers Newark and KDP sit at the top. A QR code is nested at the bottom. The text reads: RUTGERS–NEWARK School of Arts and Sciences Department of Urban Education HOPE & JOY in Urban Education Centering Hope: The Role of Urban Education in Social Movements Guest Speaker Marc Lamont Hill Thursday, March 12 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM 51 Halsey St, Express Newark, Room 213 Scan QR Code for FREE Tickets This event is FREE and open to the public! Dinner will be served.

The Department of Urban Education holds its annual Hope and Joy in Urban Education Lecture Series on March 12, 2026, at 6pm in Express Newark (51 Halsey Street, room 213). The event is free and open to the public. Dinner will be served.

Written at the bottom: "Imagining Community Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging" Above the text are three pictures: Highlighted in blue is an aerial shot of a city with office buildings and apartments in the foreground and skyscrapers in the background. Highlighted in yellow is a person on a motorcycle next to a food cart. Highlighted in red is a nighttime protest with people marching on a street carrying signs.

Quick reminder: Global Urban Studies is co-sponsoring a graduate student conference on the theme "Imagining Community: Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging. We invite proposals through Mar. 8. Submit proposals here: forms.gle/QiXL5qTX1oJ3...

A red-shaded photo of a cityscape of buildings sits in the background. In a darker red rectangle, the text reads "PhD Program in Global Urban Studies (line break) Apply by March 30 to be considered for teaching assistantship funding (line break) Rutgers University - Newark"

The Global Urban Studies (GUS) PhD Program in Urban Systems announces the opening of an accelerated admissions cycle, currently underway for Fall 2026 enrollment. Candidates should apply by March 30 for full consideration. Information on how to apply: sasn.rutgers.edu/gus-applying...

GUS faculty member Tim Raphael is Regional Lead on the New Jersey Monuments to Migration and Labor (NJMML) Project. Join them on Sat, March 7, from 1 to 2PM to view the final concepts for the North New Jersey monument that honors the stories of migration and labor. RSVP at njmml.com/activities/n...

Rebuilding Civic Culture in Syrian Cities Neighbourhood committees in Syrian cities show that recovery is not only about rebuilding infrastructure but rebuilding civic culture. What makes local governance truly sustainable after conflict? By ...

"Neighbourhood committees in Syrian cities show that recovery is not only about rebuilding infrastructure but rebuilding civic culture. What makes local governance truly sustainable after conflict?" Read the latest by GUS PhD Student Ghada Rifai on URBANET: www.urbanet.info/when-committ...

Update: the deadline for submissions has been extended to 10/8!

The mahram effect: gender politics and Saudi Arabia How do state-led reform, that are designed to maintain control or bolster legitimacy inadvertently democratize social structures, such as gender norms? Using the case of women recipients of King Ab...

Using the case of women recipients of King Abdullah Scholarship Programme in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Nermin Allam investigates how women challenge the gender logic that underpins state reforms and introduce shifts in gender norms within their families. Published in Democratization: doi.org/10.1080/1351...

Sankofa: The Storied Experiences of Educators of Color through Photovoice Come vibe with us as educators of color share their stories through powerful photos and real talk.

The ViSE Lab at Rutgers University–Newark is proud to curate an upcoming exhibit, The Storied Experiences of Educators of Color Through Photovoice. The launch event will be held on Sunday, March 1, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM. Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/sankofa-th...

Call for Applications Global Urban Studies (GUS) PhD Program in Urban Systems We are happy to announce that an accelerated admissions cycle is currently underway for Fall 2026. Applications will be reviewed as they arrive. The deadline for applications is March 30.

The Global Urban Studies (GUS) PhD Program in Urban Systems announces the opening of an accelerated admissions cycle, currently underway for Fall 2026 enrollment. Candidates should apply by March 30 for full consideration. Information on how to apply: sasn.rutgers.edu/gus-applying...

Musicology Colloquium with Rachel Mundy The Musicology Colloquium presents a talk by Rachel Mundy (sound studies, animal music) from Rutgers University- Newark.AbstractTitle: Canary Song and Neurogenesis: A case study in the decline of secu...

GUS faculty member Rachel Mundy will be giving a talk today from 4:30-6:30pm at Princeton's Woolworth Center. Her talk is titled "Canary Song and Neurogenesis: A case study in the decline of secular humanism." For more details, visit music.princeton.edu/events/2026/....

Join our 18th Annual Krueckeberg Doctoral Conference 📍3/13/26 | 9am–6pm | New Brunswick. ✨Keynote: “Defiant Neighborhoods” by Gabriela Rendón (The New School/Parsons School of Design) on Latinx-led resistance, housing justice & the right to remain in Brooklyn. RSVP: https://tinyurl.com/krueckeberg26

Announcing a conversation with Amir Moosavi on his book Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War.
The event will be held on March 4 from 2:30pm-3:50pm in the Dana Room and online. Registration and YouTube links available at: sasn.rutgers.edu/event/book-t...

The War on Women in Iraq One year on, what was presented as a legal “amendment” has revealed itself as a dismantling of women’s rights in Iraq. This article examines how the move institutionalised misogyny in law — and what i...

Dr. Zahra Ali offers a transnational feminist analysis of what she calls "the war on women in Iraq,” explaining the latest attacks on the very existence of legal rights for women and girls, and the repression of feminist activists. The full article in English is available at jummar.media/en/11014.

Rutgers Newark logo with boxy R followed by the following text: "Call for Papers Imagining Community Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging" "DATE: April 10, 2026 VENUE: Paul Robeson Campus Center, Rutgers University-Newark TIME: Full day, exact schedule TBA SUBMISSIONS DUE: February 26, 2026"

Written at the bottom: "Imagining Community Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging" Above the text, are three pictures: Highlighted in blue is an aerial shot of a city with office buildings and apartments in the foreground and skyscrapers in the background. Highlighted in yellow is a person on a motorcycle next to a food cart. Highlighted in red is a nighttime protest with people marching on a street carrying signs.

White text on a dark grey background. "Imagining Community Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging" This text is followed by a line before the rest of the text. "A graduate student conference organized by the Joint PhD Program in Global Urban Studies (GUS) and the Graduate Program in American Studies (AMST). The organizers welcome interventions that arrive at community through or via archival, ethnographic, oral history, quantitative and qualitative, spatial, and discursive methods. They invite proposals from the following topics and thematic frameworks: Space, Place, and Urban Life Culture, Memory and Collective Action Power, Politics and Social Systems"

Global Urban Studies is co-sponsoring a graduate student conference on the theme "Imagining Community: Space, Place, and the Possibilities of Belonging. We invite proposals through February 26. Check out the full Call for Papers, including the submission link at go.rutgers.edu/imaginingcom....

The book emerges from deep collaborations between scholars and frontline organizers, offering a collection of movement flashpoints and grassroots lessons for activism across a range of critical issues. Learn more at: nyupress.org/978147983402...

A book cover with orange and yellow ribbons. In the foreground reads the title "Asian America Rising: New Directions for Political Activism" and Edited by Diane Wong and Mark Tseng-Putterman.

GUS faculty member Diane Wong and Mark Tseng-Putterman co-edited the new anthology Asian America Rising: New Directions for Political Activism.

How local activism to make inequities visible can change the public conversation about school funding | United States Politics and Policy This funding change was driven by local activists’ ability to foreground children and their needs to educational officials.

A piece with the London School of Economics’ USAPP- American Politics and Policy blog outlines some of this research: blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

GUS PhD Candidate Nooreen Fatima co-authored a paper on school funding and budgets in Jersey City with Dr. Karis Jones and GUS faculty member Dr. Jyl Josephson.

"Schools can’t do more with less: reframing budget narratives in the Jersey City public schools" is available at doi.org/10.1080/2156...

GUS alumna Kristina Micu was named Executive Director of the Guarini Institute for Government and Leadership at Saint Peter’s University. Congratulations!

Ang Liu's most recent article, “Financialization of Housing Production: Unveiling the Fake Equity in Urban China,” has been published in Economic Geography. The piece is available at doi.org/10.1080/0013....

Trenzando Fronteras: Border Crossing as Methodology and Praxis Developing an inclusive geographical framework requires foregrounding “concepts from the margins” (Saavedra and Pérez 2014) to disrupt Eurocentric modes of knowledge production. Feminist, border-ro...

GUS PhD Candidate, Ana Isabel Sandoval has a new article, "Trenzando Fronteras: Border Crossing as Methodology and Praxis," out in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Check it out:
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Global Urban Policy Cities are active policy innovators of global importance, whether responding to climate change, migration, poverty, or health disparities, or aiming to generate growth. Since cities adapt to the needs...

GUS Director Mara Sidney and co-editor David Kaufmann's book Global Urban Policy: A Framework for Analyzing State and Society will be published by U of Michigan Press in Mar 2026. The cover features a photo by Claudia Sinatra. Learn more at: press.umich.edu/Books/G/Glob...

We're proud of the strong Global Urban Studies presence at the New School's Urban Worlds Colloquium! Pictured left to right: Fatma Zişan Tokaç, Ghada Rifai, Ang Liu, and Gilbert Nuwagira.

Program | Urban Worlds 2025 | Urban Space Lab We are delighted to welcome you to the first URBAN WORLDS colloquium for Ph.D. students. We have selected 16 students from five universities to present their work in progress. The event takes place ...

Fatma Zişan Tokaç, Ang Liu, and Ghada Rifai are presenting their work at The New School's Urban Worlds Colloquium, taking place this Friday and Saturday. The program is available here: www.urbanspacelab.org/program.

Our thanks go out to Dr. Erica Salinas Thomas and Dr. Juhwan Seo for headlining our inaugural "How to" event on applying for postdoctoral and faculty positions.

Why Are Protesters in Mexico City Angry at Remote Workers?

“Gentrification has been a constant, [...] And what we’re seeing right now is the climax.” GUS PhD Candidate Tamara Velasquez Leiferman was recently quoted in this NYTimes article on protests in Mexico City: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/w....

Fatma Zişan Tokaç presented her research at the 3-minute thesis competition with a presentation titled "The City That Can’t Sleep: Changing Experiences of Summer and Extreme Heat in Istanbul". Zişan was awarded second place in the competition. Congratulations!