Interview with the TRAFO Blog for Transregional Research, titled “There is no way to look a conspiracy theory in the eye: A 5-in-10 with Aya Labanieh,” January 22, 2026. Link.
The 5in10 is an interview format that introduces scholars and contextualizes their research interests through 5 questions answered in less than 10 minutes reading time. The TRAFO Blog for Transregional Research is a joint online platform of the Forum Transregionale Studien and Max Weber Foundation.
Co-producer of “In Sacred Spaces,” three-part podcast. Link.
A three-part podcasting project that highlights the forgotten histories of feminist, antiracist, and queer-affirming activism of Black Harlem churches (particularly St. James Presbyterian and Grace Congregational Church), and places these histories in dialogue with New York City’s (Black & Latinx) Ballroom scene. The project weaves together stories of faith, ritual, marginalization, solidarity, loss, and desire, and foregrounds queer subcultures of spirituality and community-building, especially among trans and gay people of color who often “lose” the safety net of the church when they come out.
This project was funded by Humanities NY and Columbia University’s Public Humanities Fellowship, and produced by Aya Labanieh, Milan Terlunen, Colby Xzavier King, and Olivia Leigh Branscum.
Interview as expert in conspiracy theories for the episode “Espace: les fake-news contre-attaquent“ of the docu-series “La Fabrique du mensonge” (Factory of Lies), France TV, aired June 30, 2024. Link.
The French docu-series “La Fabrique du mensonge” (“The Factory of Lies”) tackles themes of conspiracy, radicalization, and disinformation, and is produced by award-winning companies Babel Doc and Together. I was interviewed as a scholarly expert for their episode on the Flat Earth conspiracy theory and other space-related conspiracy theories circulating online. The docu-series will be seen by millions of French viewers upon release, and will subsequently be shown in French middle schools and high schools for educational purposes.
Research Associate of Community Engagement & Public Programming at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, 2023-2024.
My role was intimately connected with the Department’s gallery renovation process (2022-2026), as I was hired to conduct research on how to make the new galleries more relevant and accessible to local communities, with particular emphasis on Middle Eastern diaspora communities in New York City who often feel alienated from their ancient heritage and from museum institutions like The Met more broadly. During my time as a Research Associate, I formulated multiple proposals to the Department regarding the future of their public programming, built relationships with various community partners in the city and abroad, interviewed 50+ relevant stakeholders and artists invested in heritage and engagement work, and drafted an “action plan” of realistic and reliable outreach opportunities for the gallery spaces. My proposals helped secure 1 million USD in funding from the Carnegie Foundation for the Department to execute its public programming and engagement plans.
Interview with The Gadfly online philosophy magazine, “Tilting the Flat Earth: A Conversation on Conspiracy, Control, and Culture with Aya Labanieh.” Link.
Project curator and co-organizer at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. 2022-2023.
A community event held on August 23, 2023, which invited migrant Middle Eastern artists to reflect on their unique connections to the ancient Babylonian past through original poetry and musical performances in Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, English, and German. The event was held under the Ishtar Gate in the Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, drew a crowd of over 1,500 people, and was covered in Tagesspiegel in the following article.
“GATE” is a project that seeks to rediscover the Ishtar Gate as a monument to movement that has a particular resonance for modern migrant communities: once a sacred threshold through which people from across the ancient empire passed to enter into Babylon, and now a expatriated and reinvented artifact, it is a perfect site for poetry about the pain and creativity of exile.
Event curated and organized by Aya Labanieh and Dr. Sophus Helle, featuring original poetry by Ghareeb Iskander, Widad Nabi, Liwaa Yazji, and Abdulkadir Musa, and a musical performance will be by Emrah Gökmen. Translations by Aya Labanieh, videography by Ghazal Aldakr, photography by Aram Al-Saed.
The success of this event led to a book contract with Wesleyan University Press for a multilingual poetry anthology on the same themes, titled Born in Babylon. The anthology includes the poems performed during the event, along with many other poems in Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi, Turkish, and Hebrew, all of which have been translated into English. We aim to bring together experiences and languages that are often separated by colonial legacies, by national borders, and by sectarian divides. The dialogue between the ancient past and the troubled present can thus provide a new framework for cross-cultural exchange, and a new vision of the rich, multi-ethnic, postcolonial, and polyphonic future(s) of the West and East alike.
Public Humanities Fellow, The Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair, Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, 2021-2022.
This community-based public humanities project focused on memorializing the disproportionate effects of Covid-19 on black and brown neighborhoods in the Harlem, Washington Heights, and South Bronx zip codes of New York City. As Public Humanities Fellow, I assisted with creative and performance workshops in these neighborhoods, and served as the Assistant Curator to Işın Önol on the final art exhibition, Imagine Repair, which opened at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on April 23, 2022 and featured the works of local artists alongside more established names such as Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Carrie Mae Weems. The project was led by Marianne Hirsch and Diana Taylor, and included partners and funders from across the city. Below are selected artworks from the exhibition, which was covered in the following article in the New York Times.
