This in-person and live-streamed event will provide members of the Cornell community insight into the intersections between the undocumented student experience, access to justice and AI - through a moderated discussion with Adrian Palma '13.

Palma is a passionate advocate for immigrant rights and a proud DACA-recipient. He is Microsoft’s Global Pro Bono Manager & Digital Strategist, where he leverages AI and Microsoft technology to create digital tools that increase access to justice and drive greater impact for pro bono clients. In 2020 hundreds of undocumented youth were able to get help in applying for DACA using a virtual clinic solution designed and implemented by Palma, who was inspired by his own life experiences.

Palma will reflect on his experiences as an undocumented student at Cornell during a pivotal moment in the history of the immigrant rights movement, outline his personal and professional trajectory and its relevance to understanding and supporting undocumented students, and provide insight into the ways in which AI can be used as a tool for social change. Please RSVP through the link to CampusGroups.

Everyone Welcome - Dinner provided. With special guests Tom Hoebbel, filmmaker; and Rev. Dr. Ken Clarke, Director of the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights. RSVP required for dinner: https://cglink.me/2gw/r2132152

Asylum Seekers and Refugees from many areas of the world and specifically from Central and South America are desperately trying to immigrate to the United States. These migrants are traveling through dangerous areas and difficult terrain to reach the southern border of the US with the hopes of making a better life for themselves and their families.

When they arrive at the southern border they face danger, uncertainty, and a very large wall. Even after treacherous journeys to reach the Mexico/US border there are countless other, possibly insurmountable, obstacles. If they do reach the US to seek asylum they face arrest, detention, and possibly even deportation back to Mexico or the country from which they tried so hard to escape. We will hear their stories and the challenges they face on their journeys and explore possible remedies to what has become a broken system of immigration in the United States.

The documentary film ¿Are We There Yet? is produced by Thomas Hoebbel Photography~Video in conjunction with the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights and Cornell University with support from the Mellon Foundation. The production is also supported by a small grant from the Community Arts Partnership. The film explores contemporary challenges to immigration in the United States in 2024.

https://www.th-photo.com/are-we-there-yet

Nigerian American artist and poet Precious Okoyomon will discuss their work, on view in the Johnson Museum exhibition The Sky Measures Little, with special guests Associate Professor Stacey Langwick and Professor Antonio DiTommaso. The exhibition was inspired in part by Okoyomon’s extended research and teaching engagements with Cornell students, faculty, and staff as the Museum’s first Migrations Visiting Artist in 2022, and this conversation will bring together topics related to ecosystems, critical plant studies, and the multiple paths of knowledge creation to generate a stimulating transdisciplinary dialogue.

The conversation will begin at 5:30PM. Click here to join the webinar (Passcode 537323).

In-person visitors are invited to a tea service and open exhibition exploration beginning at 4PM. A reception will follow the conversation.

This program and exhibition were developed in conjunction with the Migrations Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative.

Understanding how people are living on, with, and from their land reveals the often-hidden dynamics of contemporary social and political change, according to Wendy Wolford, Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development and vice provost for International Affairs. This topic is explored in the new publication The Social Lives of Land (Cornell University Press, 2024) which she co-edited with Michael Goldman and Nancy Lee Peluso.

Join us in-person or via Zoom for a Chats in the Stacks book talk with Wolford where she will discuss how The Social Lives of Land weaves together novel theoretical and empirical insights and contributions from multiple disciplines and geographic locations to uncover histories and re-tell stories that focus on the lived experiences of rural and urban land dispossession and repossession.

This talk is hosted by Mann Library. Light refreshments will be served.