Displacement and Reparation: Climate, Labor and Migration Justice  

Hamoun Dolatshahi is a Kurdish-Iranian refugee filmmaker who came to the United States as a refugee in 2010. His work centers on the humanist exploration of identity and more broadly, the navigation of cultures in the diaspora. He holds a BA in communication from UCSD and is completing his MFA in Film Directing and Producing at UCLA (Summer 2024). He has directed five short films, one TV pilot, and three music videos, He served as an assistant producer/director on the A24/Netflix show BEEF, and has worked on various indie films as a Producer and Assistant Director. His films include Interpreter (2022) and Application (2023), JIN (2024), Fourcorners (2024). His current thesis film, JIN is the winner of the prestigious Sloan Film Grant (2023). JIN navigates ethics of language and artificial general intelligence, exploring themes of Kurdish feminist movement and theory Jin Jiyan Azadi.

Hamoun is also an active community advocate, dedicated to organizing politically within refugee and immigrant communities to support social justice. He is dedicated to leveraging the power of media to tell important stories and believes art needs to actively prioritize the day-to-day struggles and experiences of real people.

Nazila Ahmadi is an Afghan filmmaker and actress. Born and raised in Iran, she started her career as a child actress in Iranian films and theater at the age of six. Growing up as an undocumented Afghan refugee in Iran, she began working at the age of five with her siblings in the streets of Tehran. Her love for cinema and storytelling was supported and nurtured by a literacy education and advocacy organization for child laborers leading her to pursue theater arts, and eventually, film making.

Nazila starred in legendary Iranian director, Mohammad Ali Talebi’s recent film Tara (2023), was a costar in the short film Hajaroo, Nangarhar, and starred in the plays, Medea in Ghandehar(2022), When(2015), and Four Chest (2015). She has made various short films on issues of womanhood, and migration in Iran, and written and directed two plays in Tehran with sold-out shows, The Kite Runner (2017), and Lullabies for Not Sleeping (2016).  Her current feature documentary project, Kochkeshi, explores her struggles to find belonging amid circumstances of constant displacement—from her precarious childhood in Iran, marked by her family’s frequent relocations to her decision to leave family and friends behind for a new life in the United States.

Nazila is an advocate for women’s rights and children's rights with a focus on Afghan migrants. She worked with organizations teaching literacy to Afghan child laborers in Iran, using theater arts to help them envision their lives beyond the rigid working hours and confining conditions they are accustomed to. 

Hasan Fazili is an award-winning filmmaker who has developed theater plays, documentaries, short films, and several popular television serials in Afghanistan and elsewhere. He has also taught in a number of filmmaking classes. At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, he premiered his latest documentary, Midnight Traveler, which won a Special Jury Award. More than 30 awards have been won for Midnight Traveler, which has screened at over 100 festivals, including Emmy, Berlinale, Sheffield, HotDocs, IDFA, and Yamagata. His films Mr. Fazili's Wife and Life Again! both push the envelope on issues of women’s, children’s and disability rights in Afghanistan, and have screened and won awards at numerous international festivals. Fazili’s documentary Peace in Afghanistan, made for national television, profiled Taliban commander Mullah Tur Jan, who laid down arms in favor of a peaceful civilian life.

Saadia Ali, a San Diego native and child of Somali refugees, is a Mental Health Specialist at the United Women of East Africa Support Team (UWEAST) and leader of the young women's podcast, she supports efforts to build and sustain connection within the community. As she is currently pursuing a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy, Saadia is committed to serving her community and advocating for social justice and mental health awareness. Her journey continues as she seeks to be an active member and leader in her community.

Mohamed Musse, also known as Kobe, was born in Kenya and grew up in City Heights. With a deep understanding of the challenges faced by immigrant and refugee students, stemming from his own experiences, Kobe is dedicated to uplifting youth in underrepresented communities. Currently serving as a community college counselor, Kobe guides students through academic and personal growth. Armed with a master's degree in education counseling and aspirations for a Ph.D., Kobe's ultimate goal is to run for mayor of San Diego, driven by a desire to uplift his community. Additionally, Kobe holds the position of Youth and Educational Coordinator at United Women of East Africa and is a member of the San Diego Refugee Community Coalition's Young Leaders Circle. The establishment of the Salaam Youth and Community Center holds special significance for Kobe, representing a milestone in his lifelong vision for his community. Indeed, Kobe's dream is coming true, and everything the community, especially the youth, women, and leaders, have worked for is finally coming to fruition.

Marco Werman is co-host and executive editor at the WGBH-PRX program The World. He’s worked as a foreign correspondent in West Africa and is currently a journalist in residence at UC San Diego. Werman is also a two-time Emmy nominee and a winner for his 2006 Frontline documentary about Libya opening up to the world during a total solar eclipse.

Dr. Cindy J Lin is an environmental scientist, social enterprise entrepreneur, and founder of the San Diego Environmental Film Festival. Cindy has previously worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she spent 20 years engaged in international and national water protection projects, water quality standards development, polluted waters regulation, air and water quality policy, and sweeping environmental policy changes. She received her doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering, MS in Environmental Chemistry, and BS in Biology, all from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 Sarah Aarons is an assistant professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and isotope geochemist interested in understanding and tracking earth surface processes in a variety of environments on both geologic timescales and throughout the modern. Some examples of previous research include tracing mineral dust provenance in Antarctic ice during major climate transitions, and exploring the effects of physical and chemical weathering on newly developed isotope systems. Aarons is also a principle investigator for the Climate and Surface Geochemistry Group at Scripps. She obtained her Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Michigan in 2016. 

José Artiga is a long-time environmental, human and immigrant rights advocate in the United States and Central America, and the executive director of The SHARE FOUNDATION.  Jose has organized and/or led delegations to El Salvador and Honduras, introducing over 10,000 U.S. delegates representing all segments of the US society, including interfaith leaders and members of Congress to the Central American reality. Jose was one of the first Salvadoran immigrants to seek sanctuary in the US, at the University Lutheran Chapel of the University of California Berkeley, part of a consortium of the first six congregations in the United States to announce public sanctuary in 1982. It was this event that sparked the Sanctuary Movement that lives on today. Artiga also serves on the Board of Directors of the Aquino Foundation which advocates for the rights of the families of the Disappeared in El Salvador. He has a B.A. from Catholic University and a Master’s degree in Economics from San Francisco State University.

Luis Martín-Cabrera is an associate professor in the Literature Department and the Latin American Studies Program at UC, San Diego. He is a specialist in Latin American Studies, Environmental Humanities, oral history and anti-colonial thought and has written extensively about human rights and memory, television, film, and hip-hop music in the Southern Cone and the Andean region. More recently, Martín-Cabrera has been studying climate change and the “green transition” from a Latin American perspective. This interest has produced three interrelated projects. A digital archive –the Tranandean Lithium Project-- that revolves around the impact of lithium extraction in the indigenous communities of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile; a book length project tentatively titled, Ecocolonialism in the Andes: a Posthumanist Critique of the Green Transition from Latin America, which theorizes the pitfalls of the green turn in the Global North from an Andean perspective, and a memoir/nonfiction book -- Antes que desaparezca el río/ Before the Rivers Dissapears-- which establish a dialogue between rural Spain and the Andes around the potential death of a river.

Professor Tiara Na’puti is a first-generation college student who received a master’s and doctorate in Communication Studies and a certificate in Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a Chamoru scholar (Guåhan/Guam) who focuses on issues of Indigenous movements, colonialism, and militarism in the Mariana Islands archipelago and throughout Oceania. Na’puti works with organizations addressing immigration rights and issues facing Native and Indigenous Pacific Islander populations. Her research has been published in venues such as: American Quarterly, AmerAsia, Environmental Communication, Security Dialogue, The Contemporary Pacific, Micronesian Educator, and the Quarterly Journal of Speech. She was the recipient of a 2021-2022 Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowship, her project Sovereignty & Climate Change in Guåhan: Creating Sustainable Futures focused on the urgent challenges of climate change and democratic governance in relation to Guåhan’s political status. For this project she was in-residence working with Independent Guåhan, a community group committed to educating the public about the benefits of sovereignty for the island.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes descendant) is a lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, and an independent educator and advisor in American Indian environmental policy and community engagement.  Her scholarship and community engaged work focuses on environmental justice and traditional knowledge in the context of tribal sovereignty and nationalism, as well as critical sports studies in the realm of surf culture and professional surfing. She also brings these ideas into her work as an award-winning journalist, having written for many high profile publications including the Los Angeles Times, Sierra Magazine, Indian Country Today Media Network, Time.com, High Country News, and many others. Dina’s most recent book is Beacon Press’s As Long As Grass Grows: Indigenous Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock she is currently under contract with Beacon Press for two new books; Indians for Sale: Pretendians, Disenrollment, and Native American Identity in Late Capitalism is scheduled for release in spring 2025. She is also a co-editor of a new collection from Cambridge University Press’s Elements Series on Indigenous Environmental Research.

Wayne Yang's work transgresses the line between scholarship and community, as evidenced by his involvement in urban education and community organizing. He writes about decolonization and everyday epic organizing, particularly from underneath ghetto colonialism, often with his frequent collaborator, Eve Tuck. He is interested in the complex role of cities in global affairs: cities as sites of settler colonialism, as stages for empire, as places of resettlement and gentrification, and as always-already on Indigenous lands. He is currently serving as Provost of John Muir College at UC San Diego. Before his academic career, he was a public school teacher in Ohlone territory, now called Oakland, California, where he co-founded the Avenues Project, a youth development non-profit organization, as well as East Oakland Community High School, which were inspired by the Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party. An accomplished educator, Dr. Yang has taught high school in Oakland, California for over 15 years and is a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award.

Cristela Garcia-Spitz is the Digital Initiatives Librarian and Curator for the Tuzin Archive for Melanesian Anthropology at the UC San Diego Library, where she collaborates across areas of the library, campus, and community on projects to ensure the long-term accessibility, use, and preservation of the University’s unique collections available at library.ucsd.edu/dc.

Amy Work is the GIS Librarian at the UC San Diego Library. She support students, faculty, researchers and staff with their geospatial needs through consultations, class instruction and workshops. She co-manages the Library’s Data & GIS Lab, helps build the Library’s geospatial data collection, and is helping to build a geospatial data discovery platform with colleagues from UC Santa Barbara. She holds a MA in Geography from Syracuse University, has worked with K-12, community colleges and universities across the U.S. to integrate geospatial technologies into their curricula and lead a non-profit in Costa Rica engaging community members to use GIS to investigate community issues.

Dr. Hossein Ayazi is Senior Policy Analyst with the Global Justice Program at the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) at UC Berkeley. Across his research, teaching, and policy strategy work, he focuses on the U.S. and global political economy of race, food systems, and the climate crisis, and on social movements across the Global South and Global North. As part of OBI, he has published reports on U.S. and global agri-food and environmental policy, state and corporate power, trade and development, and climate impacts and resilience strategies, and climate reparations. On these topics, he has helped organize convenings among scholars, organizers, communicators, researchers, artists, and policymakers. His current book project, Verdant Empire: Race and Rural Economies of Containment, situates anti-hunger and anti-poverty interventions across the Third World within the longue durée of U.S. conceptions and practices of development-as-counterinsurgency while accounting for how differential processes of Black and Indigenous racialization have been a mainstay of such efforts. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Tufts University and a Visiting Professor at Williams College. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley.

Fonna Forman (JD, PhD Chicago) is a Professor of Political Science and Founding
Director of the Center on Global Justice at the University of California, San Diego. Forman’s research engages the intersection of ethics, public culture, urban policy and the city – with a special focus on climate justice, border ethics and equitable urbanization. In recent years, Forman has also partnered closely with renowned UCSD-Scripps atmospheric scientist Veerabhadran “Ram” Ramanathan on a variety of projects on climate disruption, and the disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations, including two papers on “climate migration” and ‘climate justice’ for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences; and several international and California-based task forces on climate change solutions. In 2021, Forman was appointed by the University of California President Michael Drake to co-chair the UC Global Climate Leadership Council, which advises his office on climate and sustainability policy, research and education.  From 2014-2018, she was appointed by British PM Gordon Brown to serve on the Global Citizenship Commission, advising UN policy on human rights in the 21st century. At UC San Diego, she is affiliated with the Urban Studies and Planning Department, the Center for Energy Research, the Deep Decarbonization Initiative, and the Border Solutions Alliance.