Category Archives: News

Social, political, and administrative violence results in the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam: Call to Action

After 15 months as a refugee in the USA, 12 months wrongfully incarcerated, Mr. Nurul Amin Shah Alam died in the holy month of Ramadan.

Mr. Shah Alam, a member of the Muslim Rohingya community in Buffalo, NY was resettled to the US in December 2024. He was wrongfully incarcerated on February 15, 2025, released on February 19, 2026, reported missing on February 22, 2026, and found dead on February 24, 2026, as reported by The Investigative Post.

Mr. Shah Alam, a member of the Muslim Rohingya community in Buffalo, NY, was resettled to the US in December 2024. He was wrongfully incarcerated on February 15, 2025, released on February 19, 2026, reported missing on February 22, 2026, and found dead on February 24, 2026, as reported by The Investigative Post. His brief time in the US was spent navigating a new city and multiple public and civic organizations in a quest for a healthy, stable life. This quest was abruptly ended by an ugly confluence of social, administrative, and political violence. 

As of the writing of this article, the Erie County Medical Examiner has reported that the cause of Mr. Shah Alam’s death has not been released. However, such a medical or clinical view of the human condition overlooks all the ways in which refugees are brought into the US, resettled, and are effectively “let die.” Indeed, our research focused on Buffalo and Erie County has time and again documented all the ways in which the resettlement process–starting with the immediate resettlement period of 90 days when a refugee arrives in the US and over their life course–does not work.

As a group of Buffalo-based action-researchers, community organizers, and community residents committed to health justice, we share this brief to summarize how social, political, and administrative violence ended Mr. Shah Alam’s life, and call on policymakers to take action to ensure justice for his family and prevent future tragedies. 

Our team at the UB Food Lab, community partners, faculty partners, and allies call on policy leaders and the broader community to take action to ensure that Mr. Shah Alam’s family receives justice and that future tragedies are prevented.

A brief report and call to action are pasted below and are available on this public Google Doc. 

Please note that the call to action is a collaborative effort, and it may be updated as additional information is released. All modifications will be dated. 

 Last updated: February 28, 2026

Post-doctoral position available in data sovereignty and food sovereignty

About the position

The University at Buffalo Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (UB Food Lab) is thrilled to announce a two-year full-time postdoctoral position to join a project at the intersection of data sovereignty and food sovereignty. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and supported by the School of Architecture and Planning, the project aims to close the gap between how communities seek to represent their food-related experiences and challenges, and how these are typically measured, reported, and visualized in food system data dashboards. We are especially focused on reducing intersecting data and food inequities experienced by Black, brown, and New American communities through the design of equitable data infrastructure. The team will prepare guidelines for developing data dashboards that are high quality and simultaneously both responsible and accountable to those most impacted by structural inequities in the food system. Read about the specific project with which this post-doc is associated here. 

The ideal candidate will possess a critical theoretical framework, robust methodological training, and deep experience in working on co-produced participatory action research projects. The selected candidate will work with a transdisciplinary research team including faculty, community advisors, and trainees. Candidates will produce academic and public facing scholarships including journal articles, toolkits, etc. Candidates with a broad range of methodological experience and interest are welcome; we value a broad range of epistemological approaches; qualitative, quantitative, and spatial analyses are welcome to apply. Candidates with experience with design of public facing data dashboards are encouraged to apply.

What we offer

We offer a supportive mentoring and collegial work environment. The post-doc position is located within the UB Food Lab and supported by a collegial faculty team including Drs. Samina Raja (primary mentor), Alex (Alexandra) Judelsohn, Alissa Ujie Diamond, and Mohamad Aly Etman. 

The UB Food Lab is a community-rooted and globally recognized transdisciplinary research group dedicated to research that critically examines the role of local government policy and planning in facilitating equitable, healthy, and sustainable communities. Our team focuses on the food system as a space and lever for change. We work on research that aims to make a difference in people’s lives by promoting food and health equity. We promote food and health equity by conducting and implementing research in partnership with community advocates and governments locally (in Buffalo and across the US) and in the Global South (with particular interest in Kashmir). We are especially committed to working with communities of color, immigrants and refugees, youth, and other marginalized groups. We offer technical assistance to local governments through the Growing Food Connections initiative housed in our lab. Read more about our work and our team here: http://foodsystemsplanning.ap.buffalo.edu/.  

Required Qualifications

Doctoral degree

Preferred Qualifications

  • Transdisciplinary training that intersects with data science, ethics, food systems, geospatial science, Indigenous studies, philosophy, public health, sociology, science and technology studies, urban and regional planning, or related fields
  • Outstanding record of scholarship at the intersection of data sovereignty and food sovereignty
  • Training and experience in working with publicly accessible data sets
  • Experience in or interest in co-produced approaches to designing and executing research in partnership with communities
  • Exceptional communication skills, especially in communicating complex concepts with clarity to a public audience

How to apply?

Submit your materials via UB jobs portal here: https://www.ubjobs.buffalo.edu/postings/55105 

The following materials are required:

  1. A cover letter (letter should describe how the advertised position aligns with candidate’s academic training, prior record of scholarship, and future ambitions)
  2. Curriculum vitae [include names and full contact information of three academic references]

Note: This portal for the position accepts applications for multiple post-doc positions on UB Campus. Please ensure that your materials clearly indicate that you are applying for a post-doc in the UB Food Lab. Label your files as “UB Food Lab_Cover Letter_Your Last Name” and “UB Food Lab_CV_Your Last Name”.

Timeline and process

Application due date: Immediately (until filled); interviews will begin Feb 15, 2025 

Position start date: September 01, 2025

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed virtually by a search committee (Members include Samina Raja, Alex Judelsohn, Alissa Ujie Diamond, and Mohamad Aly Etman)

Questions?

For substantive questions about the position, please email UB Food Lab staff at: foodsystems@ap.buffalo.edu [Place “Data Equity for Food Equity Post-Doc” in subject line]. For questions about the job portal or other HR related questions please email School of Planning and Architecture staff Barb Carlson at carlsonb@buffalo.edu.

The post-doc appointment is through the Research Foundation for SUNY. Research Foundation for SUNY is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and welcomes all to apply including females, minorities, individuals with a disability, and protected veterans.  The RF does not discriminate against employees or applicants based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.

UB’s Food Lab partners with prominent Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef to celebrate an important Indigenous green called haak

Zareef Ahmad Zareef
Zareef Ahmad Zareef, noted Kashmiri poet and environmentalist. Photo courtesy of Owais Zareef.

As highly processed foods make their way into Himalayan region of Kashmir, researchers at the University at Buffalo have taken a creative approach to raise awareness of haak (hāk), an important Indigenous green in the region that has been around for centuries. They’ve partnered with noted Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef as part of a public health campaign being shared in the region.

Food systems are increasingly recognized as a lever for promoting public health. Yet, the potential of Indigenous and community-based food systems for public health is often overlooked. Indigenous food systems are all the material and non-material relationships and resources — including the land, air, water, soil, and culturally important plant, animal, and fungi species — that have sustained Indigenous peoples over millennia.

The University at Buffalo Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (UB Food Lab) is working with partners at the Sher-i-Kashmir Agricultural University of Science and Technology (SKUAST-Kashmir) to document, preserve and plan for stronger Indigenous and community-based food systems. In particular, the UB Food Lab — housed within UB’s School of Architecture and Planning — is focused on documenting and preserving ways to protect haak, a type of kale (brassica oleracea var. varidis) that has been grown in Kashmir and sustained the population.  Research partners at SKUAST-Kashmir, led by Khalid Masoodi, point to preliminary in-vitro results that suggest that haak may offer protections against particular diseases (kale contains polyphenols, carotenoids, glucosinolates’ hydrolysis products and vitamins C and E that show antioxidant activity). An affordable, nutritious and culturally celebrated green, haak has served as a nutritional safety net during times of conflict in the region, a fact documented by Food Lab team including Samina Raja, Alex Judelsohn, Athar Parvaiz and others in the Journal of the American Planning Association (Raja et al, 2023).

Despite its cultural importance and public health potential, haak is competing with the arrival of (less healthy) hyper-processed foods via globalized food chains in Kashmir. Indeed, preliminary data from the research team suggests that the frequency of consumption of haak among younger generations is lower than that among older generations — a trend that the interdisciplinary team aims to counter with a new public education campaign that draws on the power of poetry.

Commissioned by the UB Food Lab, a new poem, titled “Haake Naame,” or “An Ode to Haak” by Zareef Ahmad Zareef draws attention to the historical and cultural significance of haak. An award-winning writer, poet and environmentalist, Zareef has a significant following among Kashmiris, including tens of thousands of followers on social media. Although he has composed widely on Kashmir’s history and culture, Zareef notes that he has not written about haak. Two years ago, conversations with the UB Food Lab team  inspired him to write about haak. Says Raja: “I am grateful for Mr. Zareef’s unmatched creativity and understanding of Kashmiri foodways. His poem will draw Kashmiris’ attention to the public health potential of haak in ways that a scientific journal article cannot. Art and science have to collectively work to promote health and food equity.”

Written and recited in the Kashmiri language for a Kashmiri audience, “Haake Naame” draws attention to haak’s centrality to Kashmiri life and well-being. Watch and share. 

UB’s Food Lab partners with prominent Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef to celebrate an important Indigenous green called haak

A poem by noted environmental poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef commissioned by UB Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab celebrates haak, an Indigenous green grown in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. 

Zareef Ahmad Zareef, noted Kashmiri poet and environmentalist.
Zareef Ahmad Zareef, noted Kashmiri poet and environmentalist. Photo courtesy of Owais Zareef.

As highly processed foods make their way into Himalayan region of Kashmir, researchers at the University at Buffalo have taken a creative approach to raise awareness of haak (hāk), an important Indigenous green in the region that has been around for centuries. They’ve partnered with noted Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef as part of a public health campaign being shared in the region.

Food systems are increasingly recognized as a lever for promoting public health. Yet, the potential of Indigenous and community-based food systems for public health is often overlooked. Indigenous food systems are all the material and non-material relationships and resources — including the land, air, water, soil, and culturally important plant, animal, and fungi species — that have sustained Indigenous peoples over millennia.

The University at Buffalo Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (UB Food Lab) is working with partners at the Sher-i-Kashmir Agricultural University of Science and Technology (SKUAST-Kashmir) to document, preserve and plan for stronger Indigenous and community-based food systems. In particular, the UB Food Lab — housed within UB’s School of Architecture and Planning — is focused on documenting and preserving ways to protect haak, a type of kale (brassica oleracea var. varidis) that has been grown in Kashmir and sustained the population.  Research partners at SKUAST-Kashmir, led by Khalid Masoodi, point to preliminary in-vitro results that suggest that haak may offer protections against particular diseases (kale contains polyphenols, carotenoids, glucosinolates’ hydrolysis products and vitamins C and E that show antioxidant activity). An affordable, nutritious and culturally celebrated green, haak has served as a nutritional safety net during times of conflict in the region, a fact documented by Food Lab team including Samina Raja, Alex Judelsohn, Athar Parvaiz and others in the Journal of the American Planning Association (Raja et al, 2023).

Despite its cultural importance and public health potential, haak is competing with the arrival of (less healthy) hyper-processed foods via globalized food chains in Kashmir. Indeed, preliminary data from the research team suggests that the frequency of consumption of haak among younger generations is lower than that among older generations — a trend that the interdisciplinary team aims to counter with a new public education campaign that draws on the power of poetry.

Commissioned by the UB Food Lab, a new poem, titled “Haake Naame,” or “An Ode to Haak” by Zareef Ahmad Zareef draws attention to the historical and cultural significance of haak. An award-winning writer, poet and environmentalist, Zareef has a significant following among Kashmiris, including tens of thousands of followers on social media. Although he has composed widely on Kashmir’s history and culture, Zareef notes that he has not written about haak. Two years ago, conversations with the UB Food Lab team  inspired him to write about haak. Says Raja: “I am grateful for Mr. Zareef’s unmatched creativity and understanding of Kashmiri foodways. His poem will draw Kashmiris’ attention to the public health potential of haak in ways that a scientific journal article cannot. Art and science have to collectively work to promote health and food equity.”

Written and recited in the Kashmiri language for a Kashmiri audience, “Haake Naame” draws attention to haak’s centrality to Kashmiri life and well-being. Watch and share.

Event | 2024 World Refugee Day Western New York

 

2024 World Refugee Day Western New York

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Front Park, Buffalo, NY

Contact Fardowsa Nor or Najma Farah at worldrefugeeday716@gmail.com or at 315-741-5507

Worldwide about 114 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes due to persecution, human rights violations, and acute and protracted violence (UNHCR, 2023). Our city and region is fortunate to be a refuge for resettled New Americans. In 2023, 1312 individuals were resettled in Erie County. Resettled individuals in Buffalo come from a variety of different places including Afghanistan, Columbia, Guatemala, Myanmar, Somalia, Syria, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine, among others.

In honor of resettled New Americans, our city and region will celebrate the 2024 World Refugee Day (WRD) in WNY on Saturday June 22, 2024. “Building on past WRD celebrations, the day is an opportunity to honor and celebrate resettled individuals and families whose diverse cultures enrich life in Buffalo. This is a day to celebrate courage and healing of people in the face of extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” says Ali Khadum, founder of WRD Western New York. Importantly, the day is designed to promote conversations and support strategies for improved health and wellbeing of New Americans in Western New York.

Co-organized by HEAL International and its partners, 2024 World Refugee Day festivities will take place at Front Park in Buffalo, NY on June 22, 2024, and all are invited. The program includes child- and family-friendly entertainment including a soccer tournament and theme park. Service providers and educational organizations will provide enrichment activities. An area will be set aside for families to have picnics, and a variety of food from different regions of the world will be available for purchase. 

Creating a celebratory space for people of all backgrounds is important more than ever. Expressions of violence against particular groups of people persist globally and locally including in Ukraine, Congo, Gaza, Sudan where people are actively being displaced from their homes (UNHCR and UNRWA). Locally, too, Buffalo witnessed tragic racist violence against Black people on May 14th, 2022. Condemning all expressions of violence, displacement, and hatred toward people, the 2024 World Refugee Day of Western New York celebrates the courage of all refugees, and hopes for a peaceful and free world for all people.  “World Refugee Day in Western New York recognizes all the ways in which New Americans enrich our region, and all the ways in which our community welcomes New American,” said Abdirahman Farah, one of the lead organizers. 

A limited number of spots are available for vendors and service providers to join the World Refugee Day festivities. Organizers are also seeking volunteers for the day of the event (Vendors/service providers and volunteers must sign up by June 18; volunteer orientation will be on June 20, 5:00 PM). 

Activities

11:00 AM-6:30 PM Soccer tournament

1:30 PM -6:30 PM Food vendors, service providers, entertainment, and educational services will be present

1:45 PM -2:00 PM Welcome

6:30 PM -7:00 PM Closing

Notes for attendees: We encourage attendees to carpool, ride their bicycles, or walk to the event to cut down on traffic and ensure an environmentally-friendly event. Cars will not be allowed in the Front Park parking lot. We also encourage attendees to bring their own water to cut down on plastic waste. 

Sponsors: The 2024 World Refugee Day is made possible through the generous funding from Community Health Center of Buffalo, Community for Global Health Equity, City of Buffalo Council Member David Rivera, Erie County Legislator April Baskin, Key Bank, Molina HealthCare, The Refugee Partnership, and The West Side Youth Development Coalition. 

Planning Partners: Helping Everyone Achieve Livelihood (HEAL) International, Center for Health and Social Research Buffalo State College, Community Health Center of Buffalo, The Refugee Partnership, University at Buffalo Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, West Side Youth Development Coalition, and others.

Questions? Attendees, prospective vendors, prospective volunteers and media can contact Fardowsa Nor or Najma Farah at worldrefugeeday716@gmail.com or at 315-741-5507

  1. UN World Refugee Day is on June 20. In Western New York, the community is hosting celebrations on the Saturday following UN WRD on June 22, 2024.

New Book Launch: Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture: Future Directions for a New Ethic in City Building” in honor of food systems planning scholar, teacher, and advocate- Jerome Kaufman

New Book Launch: UB Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab is delighted to announce the publication of a new book “Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture: Future Directions for a New Ethic in City Building” in honor of food systems planning scholar, teacher, and advocate, Jerome (Jerry) Kaufman (1933-2013). The book explores the potential and pitfalls of planning for urban agriculture, provides case studies from cities across the United States, and documents the state-of-art in municipal planning practice, research, and teaching tied to planning for urban agriculture. Cities featured in the book include Albany (GA), Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Cleveland, NYC, Seattle, and others.

 

An emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a founding member of the APA Food Interest Group (now APA FOOD), Jerry blended the roles of activist, practitioner (of planning), scholar, and teacher throughout his professional life. Principles of fairness and justice were a central tenet of Jerry’s life and work. Jerry wrote about urban education and race, central city planning, gender in planning, ethics — and, later in his life, food systems. During his lifetime, Jerry did not publish writings that explicitly connected planning ethics with planning for food systems, though there is plenty of evidence that this link nourished his scholarship, teaching, and actions on food systems. The editors of the book surmise that Jerry’s early preoccupation with planning ethics influenced his openness toward food systems, a topic that was largely overlooked in formal urban and regional planning practice. Now, more than 50 individuals – many of whom he trained and worked with – celebrate his legacy by exploring questions of ethics and food systems in this new book. Chapters are written by teams of scholars, planning practitioners, and community advocates to provide a rounded view.

Samina Raja: We hope that the book will be informative for city governments (and policymakers and planning staff) who are aiming to create policy landscapes to support equitable urban agriculture.
Thank you to my fellow co-editors, the 50+ contributors, and hundreds of supporters who made this book possible in Jerry’s honor.

BOOK RECEPTION. You are invited to a book launch reception honoring Jerry Kaufman at the national American Planning Association conference on April 13, 2024. Registration is required (https://lnkd.in/gcrAFis8).

BOOK ACCESS. Thanks to the generosity of multiple funders, including the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research, University at Buffalo, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Washingtom-Seattle, WNY Foundation and others, the book
is Open Access and can be downloaded from the publisher’s website at: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-32076-7.

Co-editors are: Marcia Caton Campbell, Alexandra Judelsohn, Branden Born, and Alfonso Morales.

Authors and contributors to the “Kaufman Book” include: Shantell Bingham, Sarah Buzogany, Laine Cidlowski, AICP, Abby Cocke, Nevin Cohen, Nick DeMarsh, Tanya Denckla Cobb, Jill Clark, Holly Freishtat, Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, Kelsey Gosch, Domonique S. Griffin, MUP, Kimberley Hodgson, MURP, MS, AICP, RD, Sylvia Kelly, Gabriella Hall, Enjoli Dominique Hall,Aiden Irish, Ph.D., Sydney Jones, Micaela Lipman, Kami Pothukuchi, Yeeli Mui, Subhashni Raj, PhD, Carol E. Ramos-Gerena, Anusuya Rangarajan, Molly Riordan, Wayne Roberts, Shirley Sherrod, Avery Q. Sirwatka, Kristopher Walton, MUP, Alexander J. Wright JD, Domenic Vitiello, and others. Professor Emeritus Beth Howe and Jerry’s son, writer Dan Kaufman, wrote the Preface for the book.

QUESTIONS? Reach out to APA FOOD Division at foodsystemsplanning@gmail.com.

We Want to Eat and be Healthy just like Everybody Else: How Social Infrastructures Affect Nutrition Equity in a Racialized Urban Community in the United States

New article alert: “We Want to Eat and Be Healthy Just Like Everybody Else:” How Social Infrastructures Affect Nutrition Equity in a Racialized Urban Community in the United States.

Authors: Gabby Headrick, Kiera Abdul, Shireen Guru, Allison DeHonney, Alyssa J. Moran, Pamela J. Surkan, Samina Raja, Yeeli Mui.

In this article in ELSEVIER, the authors describe how the use of social infrastructures impacts food security and nutrition equity in a majority Black and urban community in the United States.

Sustained, community-led investment is needed to address structural inequities preventing the advancement of nutrition equity. Social infrastructures should be expanded to support low-income populations inclusively, so wealth generation is possible to address the root cause of food insecurity.

Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 low-income, urban, and predominately Black people living in Buffalo, New York in May–July 2022. A thematic analysis using a phronetic iterative approach informed by the Social Ecological Model, Walsh’s Family Resilience Framework, and a framework focused on the advancement of nutrition equity.

Read the full published article here

UB organizations step up to fight against food apartheid in Buffalo

The Food Lab and Food Recovery Network aim to support marginalized communities in Buffalo: Story by JASON TSOI in SPECTRUM- THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950

Date: March 4, 2024 | 9:10pm EST

For decades, marginalized communities in Buffalo have experienced food apartheid, which Karen Washington, a food justice advocate, describes as the “root causes of inequity in our food system based on race, class, and geography.”

In response to this systemic problem, UB groups and organizations developed community-based initiatives to support marginalized communities.

Samina Raja, a professor of urban planning at UB, has long been devoted to researching food policy and equity. After graduating with a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Raja became an assistant professor at UB in 2001.

A few years later, Raja founded the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab — better known as the Food Lab — with the support of William McDonnell, who was the chief financial officer of the School of Architecture and Planning at the time.

Read the full article here

 

Mapping the invisible: Bridging and trusting networks in sustaining the urban food systems

In this new article titled “Mapping the invisible: Bridging and trusting networks in sustaining the urban food systems” in CITIES, ElSEVIER, Dr. Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah and colleagues share five key insights about Buffalo’s food systems:

  • Buffalo’s food system mostly comprises a close-knit network of local grassroots organizations
  • The network has a ‘small world’ effect showing a short chain of actors linking all actors
  • Food advocacy, information sharing, and high levels of trust help sustain and reproduce the network
  • Few actors serve as resource and information hubs and brokers within the network
  • The network tells a story of local self-reliance and co-production among urban growers and grassroots organizations

The article makes visible the social network infrastructure of people sustaining the urban food system in the post-industrial city of Buffalo, NY. It does so by probing how networks are launched and sustained over time, who is responsible for the networks, and to what end. The authors employ a survey to collect data on social networks among actors within the city’s food system. The findings suggest that Buffalo’s urban food system is a constellation of close-knit networks comprised primarily of local grassroots organizations having ‘small world’ effects— that is, short chains of actors within the network link all actors. These central actors rely on their high levels of trust and shared beliefs and vision to socially reproduce, sustain, and strengthen their urban food system through advocacy and information sharing. In sum, we find that Buffalo’s food system story is one of local self-reliance, co-production, and co-dependency among urban growers and other grassroots actors whose day-to-day practices and lived experiences are largely excluded from the municipal government’s policies and decisions.

Read the full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275123005620