GULAF Faculty and Researchers

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies(SLU)faculty are actively engaged in international, transnational, and global research, teaching, training, and public engagement. Select SLU faculty members whose work engages in global dimensions constitute the Global Urban and Labor Affairs Forum(GULAF) research experts. They are specialists in transnational and comparative urbanism, transnational and global labor migration, global labor organizing, global governance, politics, and policy,  and international political economy.

Alethia Jones is a Distinguished Lecturer in Labor Studies and serves as the director of Civic Engagement and Leadership Development at the Murphy Institute. For six years, she directed the Education and Leadership Development Department of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest union local in the United States. She is an expert in transformative leadership development and a certified liberation coach. Her consulting, research, and publications focus on immigrant political incorporation, urban informal economies, health care worker organizing, intersectional black feminism, and social justice philanthropy. Her work broadly encompasses transnational labor organizing and transnational labor migration.

Anna Zak serves as the Head of Internships and Experiential Learning at CUNY SLU. She is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the School of Education at St. John’s University. She has over 20 years of national and international experience across the nonprofit, government, and education sectors. Her research interests include Experiential Learning, Career-Connected Learning, Virtual Exchange, Study Abroad, Global Citizenship Development, and global governance and policy. Anna has lived, studied, and worked abroad in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Anna’s areas of interest cover transnational social movements and migration.

Andres Bernal is Substitute Lecturer in Urban Studies. He has several years of experience as a senior political advisor, social impact consultant, educator, and scholar. He is a Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. Andres has a background in international social justice projects, including work in Colombia as a former liaison to President Gustavo Petro and the U.S. Progressive Caucus, and as a current member of the policy think tank Centro de Pensamiento Vida. His research focuses on transnational politics and transnational comparative urbanism.

Brian Kamanzi is a researcher with the IPLCE and TUED at SLU where he supports unions worldwide in improving their negotiating capacity within the global energy. He is a South African-born writer, engineer, and activist committed to social, political, and economic emancipation. With an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, he has worked in higher education, social advocacy campaigns, renewable energy, and climate policy sectors for several years. His research focuses on transnational labor organizing and global and comparative urbanism.

Kafui Attoh is Professor of Urban Studies and Urban Studies Department Chair at SLU. He received his B.A. from Macalester College and his Ph.D. in Geography from Syracuse University. His broad interests include the political economy of cities around the world, the politics of public space, and debates surrounding the idea of the “right to the city.” His work encompasses transnational and comparative urbanism.

Lala Peñaranda serves as the Latin America Coordinator for Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) and the IPLCE at SLU. She is a climate policy researcher and union advocate and researches the socio-economic impacts of energy transitions across the Americas.

Nantina Vgontzas is an Assistant Professor in Labor Studies. She studies the politics of labor, climate, and technology, with research focused on the rapidly expanding logistics sector as a key node in global commodity circulation, reshaping social and political alliances in global cities. Nantina’s work examines how warehouse workers’ efforts to improve their working conditions intersect with community efforts to mitigate the environmental harms of warehouse expansion. Her interests broadly cover transnational labor organizing, global political-economy, and transnational and comparative urbanism.

Oluchi Agbanyim is the Program Specialist at CUNY-SLU’s Global Urban and Labor Affairs Forum & a PhD Candidate in Global Governance and Human Security at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She earned a master’s in international affairs from CUNY-Baruch College’s Austin Marxe School of International and Public Affairs. Her research interests focus on international justice and on deepening democracy in transitioning countries in the Global South. Oluchi has 10 years of experience working at the Center for Democracy and Development West Africa and consulting for the United Nations Development Program, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and the United States Institute of Peace.

Penelope Lewis is Chair of the Labor Studies Department and Professor of Labor Studies. She studies social class, social movements, and urban social change. Her books include Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks: The Vietnam Antiwar Movement as Myth and Memory; The City Is the Factory: New Solidarities and Spatial Strategies in an Urban Age; Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions and Strategies for a Progressive Future. She has worked as a union organizer and has been active in labor and community organizations. Her expertise includes transnational labor organizing and comparative urbanism.

Rita Kiki Edozie is Professor of Urban Studies and Steering Committee Chair of GULAF. She is SLU’s Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. She is an accomplished scholar and author of numerous books and scholarly articles on global development, comparative democratization, African affairs, urban studies and policy, and race and identity. Her teaching and research in global public policy focus on the global transformation, regionalism, and transnational challenges related to democracy and economic development. Her work engages global governance, international political-economy, policy, and transnational politics.

Samantha Agarwal is Assistant Professor of Urban Studies. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Johns Hopkins University (2023). Her writing and research focus on neoliberalism, social movements in India, and the global rise of authoritarian ethnonationalism. Her areas of interest include transnational labor organizing and the global political economy.

Samir Sonti is an Assistant Professor of Labor Studies and Urban Studies. He is a historian of U.S. labor and political economy. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of New Labor Forum and has held various roles in the labor movement. His current book project, Inflation: A Political History, examines the contested politics of inflation in twentieth-century United States. Most recently, he served as co-editor (with Nelson Lichtenstein) of Labor’s Partisans: Essential Writings on the Union Movement from the 1950s to Today (The New Press, 2025). His research interests include transnational labor organizing and global political economy.

Sean Sweeney is the Director of the International Program for Labor, Climate & the Environment (ILPCE) at SLU, a global hub that connects trade unions, grassroots organizations, social movement leaders, and policy-oriented allies to advocate for effective solutions to the climate emergency and advance the struggle for energy democracy at all levels. He coordinates the Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), a global network of 68 unions from 23 countries across the Global North and Global South. Sweeny’s work spans transnational labor organizing.

Sofya Aptekar is Professor of Urban Studies. She is the author of the books Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat and The Road to Citizenship: What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States, and co-author of Beyond Dreamers: Transitioning to Adulthood in An Uncertain Age and Lend and Rule: Fighting the Shadow Financialization of Public Universities. Dr. Aptekar is interested in transnational labor organizing in solidarity with Palestinian workers and unions, including through global economic boycotts. She studies transnational urban networks of resistance to US imperialism and militarism within and beyond global governance structures.

Stephanie Luce is Professor of Labor Studies at the School of Labor and Urban Studies and a Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). She is best known for her research on living wage campaigns and movements, and her work includes transnational labor organizing and global labor migration.

Yolande A. Cadore is a Distinguished Lecturer in Urban Studies. She holds a B.S. in Urban Policy and Advocacy from SUNY Empire State University, a master’s in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a doctorate in Education from St. John Fisher University. Her research interests include social justice, the global environment, transnational politics, and global labor organizing.