“Respect” - Photo by Robert Stribley
I’m excited to announce that my photography will be featured in the School of Visual Arts Continuing Education exhibit These Years at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn Bridge Park from September 18th through December 1st.
Speaking at the Brooklyn Product Design Meetup. Photo by Brian Hui.
After some 16 months of pandemic lockdown, it was wonderful to join everyone at the Brooklyn Product Design Meetup in DUMBO in mid July to present on the topic of “Designing for Privacy in an Increasingly Public World.” This was, no doubt, the first public presentation many people had attended in months and my first time public speaking, not online but “in real life” since early 2020. Here’s a video of the talk on YouTube. Presentation on Slideshare.
After working on it for approximately three year, I have completed the Certificate in Global Affairs at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. My studies included classes in International Relations, International Law, International Political Economy, Foundations of Transnational Security, Gender in International Affairs, and Energy and the Environment. I began the certificate on campus but continued with most of studies during the pandemic. Needless to say, between work and these classes, I spent a lot of time suspended before a screen in Zoom sessions during COVID.
My essay “The dark UX pattern which may bring down Matt Gaetz” was featured by the UX Collective on their Medium publication, which has almost 420,000 followers. The piece explains how Venmo’s default payment options may have made the Florida Representative’s shady private life public data.
Image accompanying my essay: Activists from the human rights group, Doctors for Camp Closures, hold illuminated signs on a freeway overpass next to the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California, in February 2020. The group is calling for the end of US immigration detention centers and the US policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico and Central America to wait for their asylum court appointments. EFE/EPA/DAVID MAUNG
In January 2021, my piece on the mistreatment of transgender asylum seekers in the United States was published on Open Global Rights.
Trump administration enacted an unprecedented reduction in the number of asylum seekers admitted to the United States—admissions are only about 16% of the cap the Obama administration established in 2016. Transgender asylum seekers, who are already more at-risk than typical applicants, now face tremendous hurdles and abuse as they try to survive in the opaque confines of this increasingly constrictive immigration system.
Immigrant Song is my ongoing project about undocumented immigration within the United States. It’s also now also a podcast. In each episode we will discuss a specific and timely topic on the subject of immigration. You’ll hear facts and figures but also interviews with people who are experts or who’ve been affected by our immigration laws. You can find the podcast on Apple, Google Play, Overcast, Pocketcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spotify, TuneIn, and other popular platforms for podcasts.
An exhibit of my photography from Antarctica, entitled Images from the White Continent was on display at both locations of Arts & Crafts in New York for April/May and June/July, respectively.
From my artist’s statement:
In December of 2016, I took a six-week sabbatical from work and was fortunate enough to visit Antarctica. I approached the continent then with a deep sense of gratitude, which would soon be overtaken by awe.
Moving through Antarctic waters felt like traversing another planet. Known as the White Continent for the color of its icy, snowy landscapes, Antarctica also shares an astonishing display of greys and surprises you with bright electric blues. The animals here exist in innocence. The only human visitors they receive generally treat them with respect and their resulting lack of fear for us is reflected in surprising states of intimacy and repose. Though your experience may be punctuated by tremendous displays of life—visiting a penguin colony with tens of thousands of inhabitants—the overall experience is one of surprising tranquility. Moments of animal community are just as likely to be balanced by moments of solitary animal experiences. This environment then—alien as it is—speaks to us of our own experience, even as we are reminded that we are strangers in a strange and beautiful land. All the more reason for us to approach this great continent with curiosity and wonder, but especially with care.
These photographs were taken over just five days visiting the Antarctic Peninsula.
In July, 2018, I studied for a week at Georgetown University, where I earned a Certificate in Privacy and Data Security via the Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía (Higher Institute of Law and Economics) of Madrid in Spain. I enjoyed meeting students from Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico.