The Florida International University’s Commons for Justice (FIU-‘CfJ’) strives to build a research-analysis-awareness-voice-solutions program to identify, illustrate, and address the deep racial and ethnic inequities in pre-event disaster exposures and vulnerabilities and in post-event resilience resources and capacities.

Community Spotlight

Colored Town/Overtown

Colored Town/Overtown, established in 1896 in the heart of Miami, Florida, boasts a rich history as a vibrant community that has thrived since the mid-20th century as the ‘Harlem of the South’. The construction of Interstate 95 in the 1960s physically divided Overtown, leading to displacement and cultural erosion. Despite these challenges, Overtown has continued to persevere.

The Black Archives

Crossing Overtown

Video: Dr. Enid Pinkney

Catalyst Miami

Video: Dr. Ira P. Davis

Student Spotlight

The ‘Commons for Justice’ Podcast

The ‘Commons for Justice’ Podcast aims to become a vessel for transformation and to forge a future where equity, community capacity, and empathy are not just concepts but lived realities.

The student created ‘Commons for Justice’ Podcast aims to engage the community in crucial, complex, and sometimes controversial discussions about the ever-evolving stories of the past, present, and future of 'Race, Risk, and Resilience' in coastal communities. The podcast was created to transform exclusionary and sometimes complex academic jargon into an accessible and easily digestible form.

In essence, this podcast is not merely a dialogue; it's a journey, a statement, and a space for diverse, dedicated, and multidisciplinary minds to share their perspectives in identifying, addressing, and experiencing pre-disaster vulnerabilities and post-disaster resilience in the Greater Miami area.

The upcoming episodes delve into the FIU-’CfJ’ mission and the captivating narratives, expertise, and insights shared by the brilliant minds within this ‘collaboratory’ as we journey through the intersections of 'Race, Risk, and Resilience.' Throughout season one, we challenge top-down approaches and discuss the 'duality of expertise,' emphasizing the importance of incorporating community perspectives and lived experiences.

Among other topics, this podcast explores the impacts of systemic structural issues present within our local and global communities, collective problem-solving methods of the present, and our hopes for the future.

While the podcast's theme, "The Past, Present, and Future of 'Race, Risk, and Resilience," sets out to provide an all-encompassing and comprehensive view of myriad nuanced issues through a storytelling lens, it also serves as a critical reminder.

As stewards-in-waiting for the communities we will one day inherit - student voices, perspectives, and ideas must not just be regarded as audible opinions but integrated as valued contributions within this ‘collaboratory’. We hope that this student-led podcast serves as a testament that understanding the past, navigating the challenges of the present, and charting a course for the future requires that young minds can be active participants in the ongoing dialogue shaping the future of 'Race, Risk, and Resilience.’

By Genai Witter

Creator of The 'Commons for Justice' Podcast

Upcoming Events

The Mellon ‘Common for Justice’ is co-sponsoring an NSF-funded two-day hybrid (on Zoom and at FIU MMC) conference and workshop on January 18-19. The topics will focus on data ethics, data justice, collaborative work with local communities, and public pedagogies. This is an opportunity for students, faculty, and community partners to present and brainstorm work in progress and co-authored articles.

We want to invite everyone from the Mellon grant ‘collaboratory’ who is interested in presenting their work and brainstorming ideas for co-authored articles.

We will have four workshop sessions on the following themes:

Critical education, social justice theories, intersectional feminist approaches, and ethics in the classroom
Community and citizen-engaged approaches to knowledge production
Interdisciplinary approaches to rewiring geospatial technologies and data visualizations
Indigenous geospatial data sovereignty, Indigenous methodologies, and Indigenous pedagogies

We ask participants to register on the website. The registration requires an abstract, but community partners can send a brief description of their work instead of a formal abstract.

The deadline to register has been extended to December 15.

Please find the full call for participation and registration details here: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/ethicaldata/

Please contact Dr. Reid for any questions: greid@fiu.edu

Solutions Session

Please join us at the CfJ Solution Session on hurricanes and extreme heat on January 26th at 10AM on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC) AHC5 Room 201

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