Symposium Schedule

Speaker

Erica Caple James, MIT Professor of Medical Anthropology and Urban Studies, researches political violence, trauma, and postconflict transitions; human rights and humanitarianism; race, history, and heritage; and climate change and agricultural development. Her first book, Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti, documents the psychosocial experiences of Haitian torture survivors targeted during the 1991-94 coup period and Haiti’s transition to democracy. Her second ethnography, Life at the Center: Haitians and Corporate Catholicism in Boston, analyzes the biopolitics of faith-based aid to Haitian immigrants and refugees. She is currently writing about climate impacts on Haiti’s cacao sector and value chains.

In our first session, we examine how planning tools and policies have been instrumental in advancing settler colonialism in Palestine. We analyze the grammar of apartheid — its socio-spatial control mechanisms and the geopolitical interventions that sustain the occupation. Situating contemporary Gaza solidarity encampments within a broader historical continuum, we trace the evolution of camps: from early 20th-century Jewish settler camps used to colonize Palestine, to humanitarian refugee camps that confined Palestinian survivors of the Nakba, to the Palestinian appropriation of this typology as spaces of insurgence and resistance. Through dialogue with historians of Palestine and planning scholars, we explore the systematic erasure of historical narratives that challenge colonial domination and strengthen movements for liberation and a free, democratic Palestine. Understanding Palestine within the historical continuum of colonialism and anti-colonial struggle is essential to an architectural-historical perspective and political morality that upholds the intellectual responsibility to 'speak truth to power’ (Said 2000).

Speakers

Jude Abdelqader is a Doctoral Student in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP. Her work explores Palestinian spatial approaches to self-determination and histories of architectural modernisms in Palestine. Jude received a Bachelor in Architecture from the Technion Institute in Haifa, and a Masters in Architecture and Historic Urban Environments from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, as a Saïd-Chevening partner scholar. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, she gained practical experience working at Senan Architects and co-founded the Ehna Hein project in Taybe.

Heba Alnajada is Assistant Professor of Global Modern and Contemporary Architecture in the History of Art & Architecture Department at Boston University. Her research interests include refugee histories, cities, the political history of the modern Middle East, Islamic traditions, and (increasingly) property and the law. Before joining BU, she was the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History at UC Davis. She received her PhD in Architectural History from the University of California, Berkeley. Her academic research builds on several years of professional experience in architectural NGOs, urban planning, and heritage documentation projects in Yemen, Libya, Jordan, and Palestine.

Maha Samman is Associate Professor in Urban Planning and author of Trans-Colonial Urban Space in Palestine: Politics and Development, Routledge 2013. Dr. Samman holds a BSc in Architecture (Birzeit University), MSc in Urban Planning (TU Delft, the Netherlands), and a PhD in Political Geography/ Urban Politics (University of Exeter, UK). She is Editor-in-Chief of Al-Quds Journal for Academic Research- Humanities and Social Science. She won the Palestine Islamic Bank Research Award in the category of distinctive researcher in Palestine 2019, and American University distinctive researcher in Palestine of 2022. She has published several articles in pronounced journals on Architecture, urban and political issues especially about the city of Jerusalem.

Moderator

Nasser Rabbat is the Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT.  His interests include Islamic architecture, urban history, heritage studies, Arab history, contemporary Islamic art, and post-colonial criticism.  

Professor Rabbat has published numerous articles and several books on topics ranging from Mamluk architecture to Antique Syria, 19th century Cairo, Orientalism, and urbicide.  His most recent books are Turathuna (Our Heritage) (2025); Taqiy al-Din al-Maqrizi: Wijdan al-Tarikh al-Masri (2024); Nasser Rabbat: Critical Encounters (2023); andWriting Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and His Historical Project (2023), which won the British-Kuwaiti Best Book Award (2024). He is currently editing a book on the cultural history of Syria, tentatively entitled, Syria: The Land Where Cultures Met, and writing a history of Mamluk Cairo.

Prof. Rabbat worked as an architect in Los Angeles and Damascus and taught at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich; École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris; NYUAD, UAE; and The Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, Rabat. He held several research appointments in Cambridge MA, Princeton, Los Angeles, Cairo, Granada, Rome, Paris, Doha, Bonn, and Florence. He regularly contributes to several Arabic newspapers and consults with international design firms on projects in the Islamic World. 

This session critically examines the challenges and failures of past rebuilding efforts in Palestine, focusing on interventions by various organizations and donors such as USAID, various United Nations agencies, German Cooperation (KfW), the EU, and the World Bank. We will analyze the planning and implementation of post-ceasefire reconstruction, assessing both the impact and the key shortcomings of these efforts, including Israeli restrictions that have stalled reconstruction, the competing political agendas of stakeholders, internal divisions, and the cycle of repeated destruction. Through this discussion, we will explore why these rebuilding efforts have repeatedly fallen short and what critical aspects have been overlooked. By unpacking these dynamics, we aim to highlight lessons that can help prevent the repetition of past mistakes.

Speaker

Mamoun Besaiso, Director of Level 5 Consulting Group, is a senior expert with 30 years of experience in program management, early recovery, reconstruction, and disaster management across Palestine and the Arab region. He previously led the National Team for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip under the Palestinian government, overseeing major reconstruction efforts following the conflicts of 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. He also played a key role in developing early recovery and reconstruction plans for Gaza. Currently, he works as an international consultant for the United Nations and the European Union in conflict-affected regions across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, including Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa.

Moderator

Faranak Miraftab is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning with joint appointments in Women and Gender Studies and Geography at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her established transnational feminist urban scholarship focuses on urbanization, citizenship, and insurgent practices of marginalized people based on class, race, and gender in many areas of the world—United States, Middle East, Southern Africa, and Latin America. For more see her website https://www.faranakmiraftab.com/.

Speaker

Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal (USA) assumed his function as UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, on 1 May 2020. He is Professor of Law and Development at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A lawyer by training, he is an expert on many areas of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, the UN system, and the human rights challenges posed by development activities.

Speakers

Naim Aburaddi is an artist, journalist, and media instructor, currently a Data Justice Fellow at Princeton University’s Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. He is also pursuing a PhD in media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he teaches in the Department of Media Studies.  He is the co-founder and manager of the Phoenix of Gaza XR project, an interactive virtual reality experience that documents life in Gaza highlighting its culture, history, and resilience. His artwork has been showcased at major institutions, including Princeton and Yale, where he has also spoken at a prominent event at Princeton and delivered a keynote at Yale on immersive storytelling, media justice, and cultural preservation. He has been featured in major media outlets such as the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, BBC, and Colorado Public Radio (CPR). In recognition of his dedication to activism and scholarship, Aburaddi was awarded the prestigious  2024 Graduate Student Activist Award by the Activism & Social Justice Division of the National Communication Association (NCA). With over seven years of experience in digital media, he has held roles as a digital content editor, social media manager, and social media specialist at international media production companies. Aburaddi’s research explores how immersive technologies can be harnessed for cultural preservation and as tools for imagining alternative futures. He investigates how virtual and augmented reality, 360-degree storytelling, and spatial computing can serve as platforms for documenting histories, resisting erasure, and fostering new modes of engagement with displaced or marginalized communities. His work also examines the ethical and political dimensions of these technologies, particularly in the context of media justice and representation. Utilizing creative spaces such as planetariums and black box studios, he creates counter-media narratives that challenge dominant perspectives and expand the possibilities of storytelling.

Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb is a professor of media studies at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) and a senior data justice fellow with Princeton's Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the recipient of the 2024 Women Support Organization’s Distinguished Woman of the Year award and the 2024 Activism and Social Justice Scholarly Influence Award by the National Communication Association’s Activism and Social Justice Division. She is also the recipient of the 2020 CSUSB Outstanding Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities Award and the 2019-20 Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Faculty Mentor Award. In 2019, she won the Rebuilding Alliance “Story Teller” Award. She co-produced and co-directed the documentary 1948: Creation & Catastrophe, winner of the Jerusalem International Film Festival’s 2019 Special Jury Award in the Feature Documentary category. She is the co-founder and faculty director of the Gaza xReal project: The Phoenix of Gaza. Her research interests include digital communication, digital resistance & decolonization, social justice, and diasporic communities. She is working currently on a study of Palestinian digital resistance and decolonizing digital spaces.

This session aims to bridge connections between individuals and organizations on the ground in Palestine and participating in the symposium. We will hear first-hand accounts from three individuals living and working in Gaza, as well as about research done in collaboration with people on the ground. After these report-outs, speakers will be moved to nearby rooms where attendees will engage in smaller group discussions. We will first invite attendees to reflect on what they heard from the speakers and what skills or resources they are able to contribute. Then, attendees will have the opportunity to ask speakers in Palestine follow-up or clarifying questions, as well as the time to brainstorm future work.

Invited Guests

Nagham Al Baba is a Palestinian computer science student currently enrolled in the MIT Emerging Talent Computer and Data Science Program. Despite facing displacement, her passion extends to motion graphics, where she aims to merge her technical skills with visual creativity to create impactful content. Nagham aspires to produce videos that tell powerful stories, reflecting the struggles and hopes of the Palestinian people. Through these creative projects, she hopes to make a significant impact and amplify voices that need to be heard around the world.

Jumanah Bawazir is an Advanced Researcher at Forensic Architecture and a multidisciplinary designer. She trained as an architect at the Architectural Association in London. Her work at Forensic Architecture focuses on the overlay of open source research and digital modelling to bring forth civil investigations that confront state narratives. Her own research weaves together storytelling, film, and poetry, as forms of community collaboration and communication to confront the spatial politics of exile.

Abed El-Fatah M. Shehada is an experienced project coordinator and trainer based in Gaza, Palestine, with a strong academic background in Education Technology, English Language Education, and Business Administration. He has extensive experience in project management, humanitarian work, and community development, focusing on psychosocial support, child protection, and IDP assistance. Abed has worked with various NGOs and international organizations, providing technical support, overseeing monitoring and evaluation, and leading teams. He is skilled in proposal writing, report writing, and designing training programs. Fluent in Arabic and English, Abed is proficient in various software tools. His work has made a significant impact on marginalized communities, particularly in addressing trauma and conflict-related challenges. Abed is committed to continuous professional development and community empowerment.

Dr. Stephen Friend is an authority in the fields of genetic resilience, cancer biology, and digital health. He is now a co-founder and President of 4YouandMe, while based at Oxford as a Visiting Professor of Connected Medicine and heading the Scientific Advisory Board at the "Learning Planet Institute" in Paris. Stephen now works on various aspects of empowering individuals including using smartphones and wearables to evolve ways for wearables to help individuals navigate their health conditions. After spending time in 2021 in Gaza, he has co-led several ongoing efforts in psychosocial support, education, enabling Oncology care, and helping with the MIT SPOC program- all these by working with Abed El Fatah Shehada at FDC.

Amir Yasin

Moderators

Erica Caple James, MIT Professor of Medical Anthropology and Urban Studies, researches political violence, trauma, and postconflict transitions; human rights and humanitarianism; race, history, and heritage; and climate change and agricultural development. Her first book, Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti, documents the psychosocial experiences of Haitian torture survivors targeted during the 1991-94 coup period and Haiti’s transition to democracy. Her second ethnography, Life at the Center: Haitians and Corporate Catholicism in Boston, analyzes the biopolitics of faith-based aid to Haitian immigrants and refugees. She is currently writing about climate impacts on Haiti’s cacao sector and value chains.

Ceasar L. McDowell is a Professor of the Practice of Civic Design at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His current work is the design of inclusive democratic processes capable of supporting beloved, just, and equitable communities that can – as his friend Carl Moore says – “peacefully struggle with traditions that bind and the interests that separate in order to build a future that is a just improvement on the past.” 

Ceasar co-hosts MIT’s WeWhoEngage podcast series and co-leads OpenDocLab. Founder of MIT’s CoLab and Civic Designers consulting. He recently served as Associate Department Head for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Associate Director of MIT’s Center for Constructive Communications. and co-chair of the Masters and City Planning Program. He has also been Director of the global civic engagement organization Dropping Knowledge International, President of Interaction Institute for Social Change, co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum on Telecommunications Policy, and founding Board member of The Algebra Project.

This panel attends to memory justice as both form and method, treating it not only as a repository of the past but as a method for resisting erasure and shaping futures under the continuing and expanding conditions of occupation. Gaza acutely reminds us that the perceived permanence of cities — streets, landmarks, and homes — is precarious, particularly in the context of oppression and violent destruction. In this context, memory emerges not as static preservation but as an active force that insists on futures beyond occupation’s grasp. It becomes the site where survival and justice remain intertwined, where cities can be reimagined, and where Gaza — its embodiment and persistence — calls planners, architects, and all of us to reckon with what it means to build, rebuild, and remember.

Panelists will draw from long-standing practices of preservation, representation, reclamation, and reconstruction to discuss the roles of memory in enacting forms of justice. The discussion will engage questions of long-standing and ever-more-urgent concern in Gaza today: How does memory unmoor planning from colonial logics and privatized development? How does memory sustain communities across fragmented landscapes? How might memory foster spaces for reflection while attending to the urgent needs of shelter and services? Altogether, the panel engages questions that ask how memories of the past inflect the present to seed visions and actions for a future of possibility, thriving, and self-determination in Gaza.

Speakers

Naim Aburaddi is an artist, journalist, and media instructor, currently a Data Justice Fellow at Princeton University’s Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. He is also pursuing a PhD in media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he teaches in the Department of Media Studies.  He is the co-founder and manager of the Phoenix of Gaza XR project, an interactive virtual reality experience that documents life in Gaza highlighting its culture, history, and resilience. His artwork has been showcased at major institutions, including Princeton and Yale, where he has also spoken at a prominent event at Princeton and delivered a keynote at Yale on immersive storytelling, media justice, and cultural preservation. He has been featured in major media outlets such as the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, BBC, and Colorado Public Radio (CPR). In recognition of his dedication to activism and scholarship, Aburaddi was awarded the prestigious  2024 Graduate Student Activist Award by the Activism & Social Justice Division of the National Communication Association (NCA). With over seven years of experience in digital media, he has held roles as a digital content editor, social media manager, and social media specialist at international media production companies. Aburaddi’s research explores how immersive technologies can be harnessed for cultural preservation and as tools for imagining alternative futures. He investigates how virtual and augmented reality, 360-degree storytelling, and spatial computing can serve as platforms for documenting histories, resisting erasure, and fostering new modes of engagement with displaced or marginalized communities. His work also examines the ethical and political dimensions of these technologies, particularly in the context of media justice and representation. Utilizing creative spaces such as planetariums and black box studios, he creates counter-media narratives that challenge dominant perspectives and expand the possibilities of storytelling. 

Nur Jabarin is an architectural researcher and curator from Palestine. Her work explores the politics of the built, unbuilt, destroyed, and imagined environments within the context of settler colonialism, with a particular focus on Palestine. Nur holds a B.A. in Architecture from Haifa (2019) and an M.S. in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), where she received the CCCP Thesis Award (2022) for her thesis 'The Codex of Revolt'. Nur is currently a doctoral student in Architecture at Columbia University GSAPP.

Mohamad Nahleh is Assistant Professor of architecture at The Ohio State University. His research and practice engage the fields of environmental history, cultural anthropology, and postcolonial literature in expanding the role and imagination of the night in architecture. His forthcoming book, Nightrise, studies the transformation of the night in the Middle East following the expansion of Ottoman, French, and Zionist colonial projects. It reveals, in particular, how the people of Jabal ‘Amil in Lebanon collaborated with the night to design their liberation. Nahleh holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the American University of Beirut and a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from MIT, where he also taught for several years.

Dana Abbas is an architect and researcher based in Palestine. She is the head of the rehabilitation unit at Riwaq (Center for Architectural Conservation). Dana holds a BA in architectural engineering from Birzeit University and an MA in Research Architecture from Goldsmiths University of London.Her experience spanned between academia, research, heritage conservation, and community-based cultural practices. Her current work aims at developing research-based practices within the realm of heritage conservation and exploring new participatory design approaches in the light of Riwaq’s projects in rural Palestine.

Yousef Taha is an architect and restorer. He received his Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Birzeit University and a Master's degree in Built Heritage from the University of Malta. He has worked in the restoration of historic buildings in Riwaq since 2011. He has a passion for architecture, information technology, and archiving. Yousef Taha participated in a series of global workshops and trainings – from Mexico City, to Amay (Belgium) and Beirut – related to architecture, conservation and archiving. Currently, Taha is managing Riwaq’s summer training and lectures at the Arab Palestinian University.

Moderator

Delia Duong Ba Wendel is the Spaulding Career Development Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and International Development. A critical peace scholar, Delia studies post-conflict reconstruction from the lenses of memory and reparative justice, with attention to trauma-informed approaches that attend to how communities live together after violence. Her interdisciplinary work draws together Urban Studies, Critical Peace Studies, Architectural History, Cultural Geography, and Anthropology. Current research builds from over a decade working in Rwanda and informs two book manuscripts in progress. Rwanda’s Genocide Heritage (forthcoming 2025, Duke University Press) is an intimate history of memory justice activism tethered to nascent human rights practice in the Global South. Her second book, Peace Villages, explores post-genocide peacebuilding as a socio-spatial endeavor; one that is defined and challenged in the design of homes, settlements, and civic space. At MIT DUSP, Delia directs the Planning for Peace research collective and developed the 'Memory Atlas for Repair' exhibition. She is also the managing editor of Projections, DUSP's annual peer-reviewed journal on critical topics in urban studies and planning.

This lunchtime discussion will include a brief presentation of the ways mapping and geospatial science are used for advocacy, truth telling, and the documentation of destruction and repair in Gaza. Conversations will highlight opportunities for collaboration and relationship building around using spatial data for justice.

Speaker

Jamon Van Den Hoek is an Associate Professor of Geography at Oregon State University where he directs the Conflict Ecology lab. Jamon's research focuses on using satellite and geospatial data to gauge the direct and indirect consequences of armed conflict on vulnerable people and landscapes. He has studied damage in Gaza using satellite imagery across three conflicts, including producing 60 assessments of urban damage since October 7th 2023. Before coming to Oregon State, Jamon was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Moderator

Eric Robsky Huntley is a Lecturer in Urban Science and Planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Director of the Spatial Action and Analysis Research Group, and Founder & Principal of OGRAPHIES Research & Design. Eric is a geographer, designer, and data scientist whose research and teaching focus on applications of spatial data science and mapping in the fight for a just future.

Our final panel invites participants to consider the epistemic processes that give rise to a discourse of “imagined futures” and space to reflect on the politics of such visions in the context of ongoing violence and settler colonialism in Palestine. Through discussions around conceptions of time and reality, we will reflect on the power dynamics of who defines and articulates imagined futures and how, in genocidal and post-genocidal settings, communities repair and heal towards liberation. The session will also question how, as scholars and planners, we center our positionality and reconstruct tools of imagining just futures to revitalize traditional frameworks resisting obliteration by the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We aim not to rush toward prescriptive and concrete outcomes, but to sit with the critical questions and processes themselves, understanding that envisioning a just future is not an endpoint but an ongoing conversation. Additionally, we will explore how to meet the kinds of support Palestinian planners have requested within their futurity, drawing on potential connections fostered within the Symposium’s third session. Tying together themes from throughout the 2-day event and the Phoenix of Gaza XR exhibit, this session will provide a space for critical reflection of the Symposium’s central questions: Under what conditions can planning address the expansionist violence of settler colonialism in Palestine and beyond? What transformations are necessary to create those conditions?

Speakers

Nour Joudah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at UCLA and a former President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography at UC-Berkeley. Dr. Joudah completed her PhD in Geography at UCLA and wrote her dissertation Mapping Decolonized Futures: Indigenous Visions for Hawaii and Palestine on the efforts by Palestinian and native Hawaiian communities to imagine and work toward liberated futures while centering indigenous duration as a non-linear temporality. Her work examines mapping practices and indigenous survival and futures in settler states, highlighting how indigenous countermapping is a both cartographic and decolonial praxis. She also has a MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, and wrote her MA thesis on the role and perception of exile politics within the Palestinian liberation struggle, in particular among politically active Palestinian youth living in the United States and occupied Palestine. 

Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb is a professor of media studies at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) and a senior data justice fellow with Princeton's Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the recipient of the 2024 Women Support Organization’s Distinguished Woman of the Year award and the 2024 Activism and Social Justice Scholarly Influence Award by the National Communication Association’s Activism and Social Justice Division. She is also the recipient of the 2020 CSUSB Outstanding Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities Award and the 2019-20 Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Faculty Mentor Award. In 2019, she won the Rebuilding Alliance “Story Teller” Award. She co-produced and co-directed the documentary 1948: Creation & Catastrophe, winner of the Jerusalem International Film Festival’s 2019 Special Jury Award in the Feature Documentary category. She is the co-founder and faculty director of the Gaza xReal project: The Phoenix of Gaza. Her research interests include digital communication, digital resistance & decolonization, social justice, and diasporic communities. She is working currently on a study of Palestinian digital resistance and decolonizing digital spaces.

Deema Totah, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Robotics and Assistive Devices Lab at the University of Iowa. Dr. Totah’s research interests lie in improving the efficacy of assistive devices for customized patient care. Dr. Totah was born and raised in Ramallah, Palestine and is a member of Scientists for Palestine. She received a B.S. degree from MIT, and an M.S.E and Ph.D. from The University of Michigan, all in Mechanical Engineering. In recent months, Dr. Totah and colleagues have been investigating access to rehabilitation resources and rising cases of amputations in Gaza.

Moderator

Jean-Luc Pierite (Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana) is an Indigenous leader, activist, designer, and an MLK Visiting Scholar at MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning with areas of focus in supporting distributed networks for education; public policy advocacy for racial, economic, and climate justice; and supporting philanthropic foundations committed to diversity and inclusion. Pierite serves as President of the North American Indian Center of Boston, serves on the Black Mass. Coalition executive committee in which he advocates for racial and economic justice through targets for public and private sectors, serves on the Community Advisory Group for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation supporting K12 students and BIPOC-led organizations, and is the founder of InDigiFab.

Speakers

Devin George Atallah, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Atallah is a multiracial Palestinian from the shataat (diaspora) who strives to revolutionize theory and practice in psychology with decolonial approaches and is the founder of the Decolonial Antiracism Research & Action (DARA) Collective (www.daracollective.com).

Ceasar L. McDowell is a Professor of the Practice of Civic Design at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His current work is the design of inclusive democratic processes capable of supporting beloved, just, and equitable communities that can – as his friend Carl Moore says – “peacefully struggle with traditions that bind and the interests that separate in order to build a future that is a just improvement on the past.” 

Ceasar co-hosts MIT’s WeWhoEngage podcast series and co-leads OpenDocLab. Founder of MIT’s CoLab and Civic Designers consulting. He recently served as Associate Department Head for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Associate Director of MIT’s Center for Constructive Communications. and co-chair of the Masters and City Planning Program. He has also been Director of the global civic engagement organization Dropping Knowledge International, President of Interaction Institute for Social Change, co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum on Telecommunications Policy, and founding Board member of The Algebra Project.