Department of English

• Wednesday, April 8, 2026 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics room 335 (AMC Conference)

This graduate student workshop brings together interdisciplinary perspectives to examine how race is produced, experienced, and contested across space and time.

Rebekah Jones (University of California, Berkeley) explores how proximity to violence in U.S. cities shapes democratic participation, demonstrating that exposure to local homicides can depress voter turnout—particularly in Black communities—thereby reinforcing patterns of political inequality. Her work highlights how spatialized insecurity constrains civic engagement and limits pathways to political incorporation.

Natalia Reyes (University of Pennsylvania) turns to the U.S.–Mexico borderlands of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to trace histories of Punjabi-Mexican relationality. Through archival research and literary analysis, she rethinks the origins of “brown” solidarity in the United States, challenging nation-state frameworks of racial classification and expanding our understanding of belonging beyond conventional historical timelines.

Together, these papers illuminate how racialization is deeply embedded in geographic contexts—from urban neighborhoods shaped by violence to borderlands shaped by migration, law, and intimate social ties—and invite a broader conversation about space, power, and democratic life.

Food provided. Register to receive links to papers & Zoom link if joining virtually.