LEAVING AND BELONGING SYMPOSIUM
Making an Impact on Immigration and Displacement through
Arts, Culture, and Storytelling
April 17-18, 2026
The symposium will take place in Lecture Hall on the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University.
Friday, April 17
8AM-8:30AM Breakfast and registration
8:30AM-8:45AM Opening Remarks (Lecture Hall 1)
Lisa Gilman, Director of the Institute for Immigration Research
Ezgi Benli-Garcia, Research Fellow, Institute for Immigration Research
9:00AM-10:15AM Program Session 1
Panel 1: Arts, Storytelling, and Immigration Policy (Lecture Hall 2)
Ali Tarokh. “Art and Story as Bridges in Migration” (Chair)
Mariamme Latif Estefan. “Creative Resistance, Collective Belonging: Migrant Storytelling as a Catalyst for Inclusive Immigration Policy”
Kavita Daiya and Ruth Campos. “Humanities on the Ground: Storytelling, Advocacy, and Migrant Justice”
Andi Floyd. “US Immigration Policies and Obstacles to Migrant Arts”
Panel 2: Sound, Intimacy, and Belonging Across Borders (Lecture Hall 3)
Gregory Robinson. “Music, Belonging, and Relationships of Intimacy in the Patagonian Borderlands” (Chair)
Brad DeMatteo. “Voicing Long-Term Cambodian American Refuge”
Ulrike Präger. “What Stories Do We Tell? Examining Contemporary and Emerging Approaches to Music and Migration Studies”
Iryna Voloshyna. “The Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America Culture as Activism in Diaspora”
10:30AM-12:00PM: Workshops
Nouf Bazaz. “Expressive Arts Therapy, Storytelling, and Community Building with Forced Migrants” (Lecture Hall 1)
Carol Silverman. “Ethical Concerns in Migrant Arts Scholarship and Activism” (Lecture Hall 2)
Salimatou Diallo. “Roots and Narratives: How Community Gardens Become Sites of Belonging for Displaced Older Adults” (Lecture Hall 3)
12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch and Programs
Participatory Art Making Workshop: “Creative Café” by Jenna Sears
(Lecture Hall 2)
Screening: “It Is All About Palestine: A Documentary” (40 min.) by Dina Abou Zeid (Lecture Hall 1)
1:15PM-1:20PM Welcoming Remarks (Lecture Hall 1)
Ann Ardis, Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
1:20PM-2:00PM Accessing Data about Immigration in the United States: Immigration Data on Demand
Marissa Kiss and Kellie Wilkerson, Institute for Immigration Research
(Lecture Hall 1)
2:15PM-3:30PM Program Session 2
Panel 3: Paved with Promise: Public Folklore, Immigration, and Belonging in New Jersey (Lecture Hall 2)
Sally Van de Water. “Paved with Promise: Public Folklore Telling the Story of Immigration in New Jersey” (Chair)
Marion Jacobson. “From Refuge to Ritual: Women, Cultural Memory and the Arts of Belonging in New Jersey’s Immigrant Communities”
Juan “Pepe” Santana. “Tending the Fire: Andean Music, Migration, and Cultural Memory in New Jersey”
Panel 4: After Displacement: Faith, Memory, and Rebuilding Community (Lecture Hall 3)
Inna Golovakha. “Ukrainian Traditional Folk Festivals, Celebrations, and Concerts in the USA as the Way to Preserve Identity, to Keep in Touch, and to Protest the War” (Chair)
Anita Omary. “From Survival to Belonging: Stories of Afghan Women and the Power of Support”
Jenni Martínez. “Kitchen Tables as Altars: Cooking, Memory, and Sustaining Kinship Across Deportation”
Keyania Campbell. “Sound and Belonging After Hurricane Katrina”
Screening: “The End/ Beginning: Cambodia,” (47 min.) documentary by Sophal Ear (Lecture Hall 1)
3:45PM-5:00PM Program Session 3
Panel 5: Museums, Exhibitions, and Curatorial Practices (Lecture Hall 2)
Blaine Siegel. “Carnegie Museum of Art’s Neighborhood Museum” (Chair)
Eve McPherson. “Leveraging the Local: The Cleveland Cultural Gardens and the Immigrant Experience as a Framework for General Education World Music Study”
Jennifer Ring. “Immigrant Hall of Honor’s Immigration Storytelling Guide: Encouraging Americans to Connect with Their Roots and Building Shared Experience with Immigrants”
Anastasiia Chystiukhina. “Art, Memory, and Belonging: A Community Art Exhibition as Immigrant Storytelling in Action”
Panel 6: Performance, Spoken Word, and Oral Testimony (Lecture Hall 3)
Bertha Nibigira. “From Leaving to Belonging: Spoken Word as Living Archive, Advocacy, and Policy Intervention” (Chair)
Hanna Salmon. “A Method for Communicating Across Languages and Cultures”
Milbre Burch. “Resisting Discrimination and Rebuilding Community through Stories”
Haeyoon Chung. “Bridging Two Worlds: Verbal and Visual Narratives of Identity among Asian American Immigrant Women”
5:00PM-6:30PM DINNER/BREAK
Please find details of this evening’s keynote performance and conversation below.
7:00PM-8:30PM Keynote Performance and Conversation
Stories of Belonging: Immigration, Arts, and Community (Lecture Hall 1)
This panel presented by the Middle East Institute Arts and Culture Center and
George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research with support from the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies.
This panel brings together artists, cultural producers, community builders, and media specialists whose work centers the lived experiences of immigrants and refugees. Through storytelling, performance, and advocacy, the conversation explores how creative expression can reshape narratives of migration, cultivate a sense of belonging, and challenge dominant portrayals of displacement.
Yasmin Elhady. Egyptian-Libyan American Comedian, attorney, and host of Hulu’s Muslim Matchmaker.
Monna Kashfi. VP of Content and Communications at Welcome US. Senior media professional and seasoned creative producer with nearly two decades of experience in broadcast, documentary, and digital media production.
Cara Mertes. Founder & Director, International Resource for Impact & Storytelling. Former director of JustFilms, the Ford Foundation’s creative visual storytelling initiative, and of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund. Previously executive producer of the PBS documentary series, POV.
Omar Offendum. Syrian-American rapper, spoken word poet, and theatrical storyteller known for his signature blend of Hip-Hop and Arabic poetry.
Lyne Sneige. Senior Director Arts and Culture Center, Middle East Institute (Moderator)
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Saturday, April 18
9AM-9:30AM Breakfast and registration
9:30AM-10:45AM: Program Session 4
Panel 7: Digital, Visual, and Emerging Media Storytelling (Lecture Hall 2)
Teddy Almuktady. “Belonging Is a Practice” (Chair)
Karla Segovia. “Ethnic Memes and Immigrant Belonging: Collective Narrative Generation on Instagram”
Ana Ndumu. “Sketching Haitian Transnational Information Experiences: The Role, Reach, and Risk of AI-Enhanced Photovoice”
Aditi Goel and Chris Vitello. “Building Community on Campus: The Leaving and Belonging Digital Storytelling Project at George Mason University”
Panel 8: Art Under Constraint/Structural Violence (Lecture Hall 3)
William Westerman. “The Arts of Immigration Detention: A Case Study from Indonesia” (Chair)
Fabricio Carrijo. “Storytelling as Policy Reimagining: Everyday Peace in Refugee Shelters”
Jeniffer Sherill. “The Right to Pleasure: A Case Study of Refugee DJs on the Greek Island of Lesvos”
Sara Green. “Storytelling in Refugee Camps: Cultivating Community, Building Identity, and Preserving Culture”
11:00AM-12:15PM: Program Session 5
Panel 9: Musical Storytelling with Refugee Families (Lecture Hall 2)
Jane Hirshberg, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (Chair)
Janet Satter and Marzia Nazari, Solutions in Hometown Connections
Kimia Hesabi and Keisha Johnstone, Sound Impact
Panel 10: Visual Arts and Material Culture (Lecture Hall 3)
Galih Sakti. “Claiming Space, Claiming Identity: Mural-Making as Visual Advocacy in Immigrant Communities” (Chair)
Peter Klubek. “Immigration, Art, Narrative, and Libraries”
Forough Sehat. “Images of the Dispossessed”
12:30PM-1:30PM Lunch and Programs
Participatory Art Making Workshop: “Creative Café” by Jenna Sears
(Lecture Hall 2)
Screening: “The End/ Beginning: Cambodia,” (47 min.) documentary by Sophal Ear (Lecture Hall 1)
2:00PM-3:30PM Workshops
Maida Owens & Shana Walton. “Planning for People: Cultural Strategies for Environmental Adaptation and Migration” (Lecture Hall 1)
Nino Kvirkvelia. “Ethical Storytelling and Arts in Community-Based Protection” (Lecture Hall 2)
Sonya Squires-Caesar. “Illegible Economies: Policy Lessons from Immigrant Communal Savings” (Lecture Hall 3)
3:45PM-5:00PM: Program Session 6
Panel 11: Changing Attitudes through Storytelling, Festivals, and Film
(Lecture Hall 1)
Vincent Maluwa. “Festivals as Governance Infrastructure: Storytelling, Culture, and Immigrant Belonging in Roanoke” (Chair)
Kayt Novak. “The National Folk Festival: Building Bridges of Belonging in the Public Square”
Jake Savage. “P’alante: Storytelling, Belonging, and Narrative Power in a Municipal Immigrant Community”
Panel 12: Learning Belonging: Literacy, Storytelling, and Community Practices (Lecture Hall 2)
Ahoo Salem. “Beyond the Classroom Walls: Field Trips for Real Life ESOL Learning” (Chair)
Sherrel Rieger and María Luz García. “Q’aa, Puentes, Bridges: Storytelling in Three Languages to Connect Communities”
Sally Nobinger. “Using Performing Arts to Lift Immigrant Stories”
Lola Okunola. “Beyond Visibility: Art, Storytelling, and the Everyday Practice of Belonging”
Screening: “It Is All About Palestine: A Documentary” (40 min.) by Dina Abou Zeid (Lecture Hall 1)
5:00-6:00: Discussion, next steps, and closing (Lecture Hall 1)
Registration for the Symposium: https://iir.gmu.edu/events/17706