MA Student Christina Sparrock will participate in a panel this evening, May 21 at 6 p.m. on alternative mental health crisis responses. People may attend via zoom (register here) for a discussion of a joint report, “Self-Determination is the Pathway to Liberation”: Alternative Mental Health Crisis Response in the United States, by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Racial and Disability Justice at UCLA School of Law.
Assoc. Prof. Sofya Aptekar published a book review in the American Journal of Sociology. She served as a critic on an author-meets-critics panel for Yuki Kato’s Gardens of Hope at the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting in Washington, DC on March 6. She led a workshop on campus debt at the Student Movements and Social Justice: Histories and Futures conference at the Graduate Center on March 9 and talked more about campus debt at Wayne State University’s Public Budgets, Public Good conference on April 30. Professor Aptekar participated in “Shared Governance: Keep or Toss?” panel as part of the Coalition for Action in Higher Education National Day of Action on April 17. She was quoted in a CollegeWatch article on undocumented students.
Assoc. Prof. Kafui Attoh was a 2026 winner of the CUNY Excellence in Teaching and Pedagogy award from the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Adjunct Lecturer Elena Conte was quoted in the Scherman Foundation’s “How Highways Are Paving the Road to Hell.”
Asst. Prof. Lauren Hudson received the Faculty Fellowship 2026-2027 at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, Graduate Center.
Dist. Lecturer Alethia Jones received the Faculty Fellowship 2026-2027 at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, Graduate Center. She was a 2026 winner of the CUNY Excellence in Teaching and Pedagogy award from the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Prof. Stephanie Luce organized and moderated three panels: (1) “Enforcing the Affordability Agenda,” at CUNY SLU, featuring union leaders and DCWP Commissioner Sam Levine, (2) “Noma Wasn’t an Exception: Working Conditions in the Restaurant Industry,” at the CUNY Grad Center, and (3) “Changing the Game: Economic Policies for a Working America,” at UMass-Amherst. She presented on US labor movement to Zenroren (Japanese labor federation) on April 30 in NYC. Practical Radicals, co-authored with Deepak Bhargava, was released as an audiobook. Professor Luce was a guest on WBAI with Bob Hennelly to talk about May Day (April 13) and a guest on the “The Discourse with Brandon Clark” (March 30).
Assoc. Prof. James Rodriguez participated as a panelist at BMCC’s Urban Studies Program inaugural public event, “Movie Night: A Home Worth Fighting For.” The film screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring director Natasha Florentino, and resident activist and SLU alum, Renee Keitt. The program also featured a collaboration with SLU’s Urban Academy, reaching incoming and prospective BMCC transfer students.
Learning Hub Assoc. Dir. Michael Rymer presented at the 3rd Annual CUNY Teaching and Learning Conference on May 8 alongside Urban Studies MA alums Britney Taylor and Jess DePasquale. They presented on their work as Writing Mentors.
Adjunct Lecturer Andy Sparberg led a New York Transit Museum tour, “Deep Dive IND subway,” about the 100th anniversary of the construction of the IND subway between Chambers Street and 207th Street on March 22. He delivered guest lecture to a class in the Columbia University American Language Program on April 7. The Spring 2026 semester marks the 25th individual class cohort he has instructed since 2012. He estimates that about 250 individual students have taken his course, NYTWU 301.
Asst. Prof. Nantina Vgontzas co-authored a policy brief with Sanjay Pinto, “Mass Worker Education: Governing from the Shopfloor,” which proposes a framework for the new mayoral administration to institutionalize worker-led education as a tool of labor standards enforcement and rank-and-file organization in worksites across New York City. The brief is part of a new series by Urban Democracy Lab.