Discussion | From Empire to NYPD: Immigration, Colonial Policing, and the Making of Law Enforcement
Join IPK for a panel discussion, From Empire to NYPD: Immigration, Colonial Policing, and the Making of Law Enforcement, on Wednesday, April 2 (5:30-7:00 PM). The origins of policing in New York are deeply connected to empire and immigration enforcement. This panel will trace how colonial policing tactics—used to control populations abroad—were brought home, shaping local policing practices and immigration control from the 19th century to the present. Featuring voices from the podcast Empire City, this discussion will examine the concept of “crimmigration” and the long history of policing as a tool for managing racialized immigrant communities. Co-sponsored by NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge Race and Public Space Working Group and the Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism Podcasting and Audio Reportage concentration.
Panelists:
• Chenjerai Kumanyika – Creator and Host of Empire City
• Matt Guariglia – Author of Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York
• Albert Samaha – Journalist and author, discussing family connections to policing during the Philippine-American War
• Michele Castañeda – NYU professor and author of Disappearing Rooms, on the criminalization of race in immigration courts
Michelle Castañeda is an Assistant Professor in Performance Studies at NYU. Michelle’s research and teaching interests focus on migration, Latino/a and Latin American studies, dance, and critical legal studies. Her book, Disappearing Rooms: The Hidden Theaters of Immigration Law (Duke University Press, 2023) analyzes three sites of immigration law: family detention, asylum hearings, and deportation (“removal”) procedures. Rather than adopt a macroscopic perspective, Disappearing Rooms analyzes individual scenes that Castañeda witnessed as a Spanish language interpreter and performance maker with immigrant advocacy organizations and the Sanctuary movement. Working at the intersection of performance studies and legal studies, Disappearing Rooms elucidates the politics of legal procedures through their
choreographic, scenographic, and theatrical dimensions. In the tradition of “writing as performance,” the book not only analyzes the theatricality of these rooms but also offers a rehearsal space in which to imagine alternatives to criminalization. Thanks to a grant from the TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) initiative from the Association of American Universities, the electronic version of the book is available for free.
Dr. Matthew Guariglia is a scholar of policing, race, and technologies of state power. In addition to his new book, Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York out now from Duke University Press, he is also the co-editor, along with Jelani Cobb, of the Essential Kerner Commission Report (Liverright, 2021). He serves as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation where he works on police technology use and civil liberties, and holds affiliations at the University of California, San Francisco School of Law, and the University of Indiana. His bylines have appeared in NBC News, Washington Post, Slate, VICE, Time Magazine, the Journal of American Ethnic History, Social Justice, and most recently in the peer-reviewed journal Surveillance and Society, where he also serves on the journal’s advisory board.
Chenjerai Kumanyika teaches nonfiction audio journalism and podcasting at New York University. He is the co-creator, co-executive producer and co-host of Uncivil, a podcast on the Civil War. He is also the creator and host of the podcast, Empire City, an eight-part narrative series investigating the complicated and largely invisible history of the New York Police Department. He has written in scholarly venues such as Popular Music & Society, Popular Communication, The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, as well as public venues such as The Intercept, Transom, NPR Codeswitch, All Things Considered, Invisibilia, and VICE. Kumanyika is also the co-creator, co-executive producer and co-host of Uncivil, Gimlet Media’s podcast on the Civil War and he is the collaborator for Scene on Radio’s influential Season 2 “Seeing White,” and Season 4 on the history of American democracy.
Albert Samaha is an award-winning journalist at the Washington Post and the author of two books. Concepcion was a finalistfor the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography and one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2021. Never Ran, Never Will was winner of the New York Society Library’s 2018 Hornblower Award, a finalist for the 2019 PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award, and adapted into the Netflix docuseries “We Are: The Brooklyn Saints.” His investigative reporting has helped free a wrongfully convicted man from prison, spurred Congress and six states to pass bills reforming police sexual misconduct laws, and contributed to at least a dozen companies implementing additional safety protocols for food and service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. His essay on why Filipinos turned to an authoritarian president was selected into “The Best American Travel Writing” anthology. Originally from northern California, he lives in Brooklyn.