Garden of Refuge Symposium

Arrival, coffee and remarks by Deputy Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany Dirk Schulz and Vice Provost Raj Mehta.

This discussion will focus on two university campus gardens: Garden of Refuge at University of Cincinnati and Garden of Refuge at TU Dortmund, Germany. Dr. Vanessa Agnew envisioned the garden at TU Dortmund in the context of her work as co-director of Academy in Exile; John Martini collaborated with UC faculty to develop the campus landscaping that promotes physical and emotional well-being. Both gardens reference movement and migration. The panelists will discuss this idea in addition to the history of the development of the Garden of Refuge on each campus. Other topics will include how Garden of Refuge supports the master plan of its campus, how the garden connects to the academic mission of its university, and how green space on campus fosters campus connection to community. Panel will be moderated by Kate Bonansinga, Director School of Art, and Fellow, Society and Culture, UC International, 2022-2025.

Speakers:

John Martini, Senior Landscape Architect, University of Cincinnati Office of Planning, Design + Construction
John Martini, University Landscape Architect at the University of Cincinnati’s Planning + Design + Construction, a division of the Office of Administration and Finance (2017-Present), stewards the exterior environment on all University of Cincinnati campuses, including open spaces, roadways, and pedestrian paths. He supports the principles of the Campus Master Plan, guiding project design. He served as president of the Midwest Landscape Network, is a registered landscape architect in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, and is a LEED Green Associate. He is a member of the American Society Landscape Architects and Association of University Landscape Architects and has received the ASLA Merit Award. B.S., Purdue University; M.B.A, Thomas More University

Dr. Vanessa Agnew, Professor of Cultural Studies, TU Dortmund
Vanessa Agnew is Professor in Cultural Studies at TU Dortmund University, Associate Director of Academy in Exile, and Honorary Professor at Australian National University. An award-winning author and editor, she founded the journal Ostrakon and publishes on music history, reenactment, and forced migration. After touring Right to Arrive and What We Brought with Us internationally, she is currently developing the exhibition What Grew at Home. Her Garden(s) of Refuge initiative involves planting a Miyawaki mini-forest and creating a Minecraft "digital twin" to archive stories of displacement and climate change. Her ecological research further examines the forest's shifting soundscapes and a study of comparative planting densities.

Kate Bonansinga, Director, College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning
Kate Bonansinga is Director, School of Art, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at University of Cincinnati, where she is also a professor who teaches courses in contemporary art and art in public space. She is a fellow of Academy of Fellows of Teaching and Learning and served as Faculty Fellow of Cultural Engagement for UC’s International Office of Global Initiatives (2022-2025). Bonansinga was the founding director of Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Art at The University of Texas at El Paso where she curated dozens of exhibitions and established an undergraduate minor in museum studies. She is the author of Curating at the Edge: Artists Respond to the U.S./Mexico Border (University of Texas Press, 2014) and of numerous articles, book chapters and exhibition publication essays, all of which address contemporary art, its meaning, and its purpose.

This panel explores the role that gardens play in recreating and creating culture, specifically agriculture, foodways, and culinary practices. Join us for a conversation on the intersection of migration, community gardens, plant and seed diasporas, and the culinary fusions that emerge from these ingredients.

Speakers:

R. Alan Wight, Associate Professor, Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences; School and Community Forest Garden Liaison, University of Cincinnati
R. Alan Wight, Ph.D., is an environmental sociologist and educator. He is an Associate Professor at The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the School and Community Forest Garden Liaison for the University of Cincinnati (UC). He teaches Fruit and Nut Production at Cincinnati State Technical & Community College and Hops & History for UC’s Horticulture Program. Alan has chronicled the Cincinnati regional food movement, working with the Green Umbrella’s Food Policy Council and other partners. His recent publication, a beautiful coffee table book, Cincinnati’s Foodshed: An Art Atlas. 

Dominic Bley, Director of Education, Garden of Joy Culinary Academy
Dominic Bley is a chef, educator, and cultural researcher whose work lives at the intersection of food, art, and embodied learning. Holding a Master’s in Art Education from the University of Cincinnati, he serves as the Director of Education at Garden of Joy Culinary Academy, designing programming for young people navigating trauma and systemic barriers. He works from the conviction that love and care have the power to transform our most painful experiences into joy. With this mindset, he treats the kitchen as a sanctuary for healing and connection. By centering the cultural knowledge students bring to the table, Dominic explores how shared food stories can cultivate authentic belonging and a legacy rooted in love.

Victor Kubwimana, Student, LaSalle High School
Victor Kubwimana is currently a Junior at LaSalle High School and was previously a student at Aiken High School. Victor has involvement in community agriculture through Aiken’s Career Technical Education Pathway, work-based learning at The Bahr Farm in College Hill, and is featured in the current photography exhibit of “Culture Crops” at Miami University. Victor and his family emigrated from Zambia in August of 2022.

Karen Uwimana, Student, Aiken High School
Karen Uwimana is currently a Senior at Aiken High School. Karen has involvement in community agriculture through Aiken’s Career Technical Education Pathway, FFA Leadership, work-based learning at The Bahr Farm in College Hill, Groundworks Ohio River Valley, and Luminary by LaTerza. Karen is a Woodson Scholar with Berea College where she will mariculture the Fall on a full-ride scholarship. Karen and her family emigrated from Zambia in August of 2022.

Aaron Parker, Agriculture Career Tech Educator, Farm Manager and FFA Advisor, Aiken High School
Aaron Parker is an educator of 29 years. He holds a Masters in Bilingual-Multicultural Education from Northern Arizona University and a BA in Archaeology from The Ohio State University and has been honored by the English Language Learning Foundation of Cincinnati, Rotary Club of Cincinnati, Cincinnatus Association, Green Umbrella, Anthony Munoz Foundation, World Affairs Council, and Cincinnati Public Schools Hawkins Award for excellence in teaching. Aaron is currently the Agriculture Career Tech Educator, Farm Manager, and FFA Advisor of Aiken High School’s Agriculture Career Tech Pathway. Aaron was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH where he lives with his wife and visit their son in Washington DC when they can.

Ecologists and landscape architects have different training and perspectives, yet must collaborate to improve ecological functions. What ecological processes still exist in urban landscapes that impinge on biodiversity and designers’ plans? Experiments have shown that ecological links can be strong in urban centers and can be exploited for ecological functioning and long-term resiliency of a design. These forces can improve the future performance of the design. They will continually influence the biodiversity and maintenance needs of the site. Landscape architects must confront these ecological forces present in new parks and can foster a new aesthetic in design that includes ecological health.

Speaker:

Steven Handel, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution Emeritus, Rutgers University

Steven Handel, Distinguished Professor of Ecology Emeritus at Rutgers University and Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (2016-2020), studies the restoration ecology of urban habitats and how this can mesh with landscape architecture design. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America, Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and received the Theodore Sperry Award from the Society of Ecological Restoration for work on habitat creation. He also received the 2024 LaGasse Medal from the American Society of Landscape Architecture for his contributions to natural resources and public landscapes.

B.A., Columbia University; Ph.D., Cornell University.

Remarks by Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany Martin E. Wilhelmy.

Lunch will be provided for symposium registrants.

This panel explores the intersections of greenspace, migration, wellbeing, and creativity and as places of beauty, growth, resilience, community, connectedness, and hope. In cities, greenspace embodies refuge, not in terms of symbolic metaphor, but as places for plants, pollinators, and people to thrive in built environments. Join us to learn about how UC graduate and undergraduate students, such as the inaugural Garden of Refuge Graduate Fellow, Fatemeh Rezeai, incorporate plants, gardens, and greenspace into their scholarly efforts.

Speakers:

Fatemeh Rezeai, Garden of Refuge Graduate Fellow, University of Cincinnati
Fatemeh Rezaei, born in Iran to Afghan parents, is a documentary photographer based in Cincinnati, USA, and a former fellow of Academy in Exile, TU Dortmund, Germany. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Photography from the Art University of Tehran, Iran. She is currently pursuing dual master’s degrees in Fine Arts and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati, where she is also a graduate assistant in the Taft Research Center. Since 2018, she has participated in numerous workshops and group exhibitions, including the Two Cities Project, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service and conducted with Iranian and German students, and the Night Lab program hosted by the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) in New York in 2023.

Among Rezaei’s exhibitions is Identity, a photo series on the role that ID cards play in the lives of Afghan migrants and refugees in Iran, mainly focusing on the emotional and psychological effects imposed by a tenuous legal status in a foreign country. Rather than being granted citizenship, they are provided with a so-called “Amayesh” card, an identification document that falls short of the full rights and responsibilities that citizenship would afford. Through a photographic exploration of the experiences of individuals who have been forced to leave their home countries due to conflict and state collapse, this project shows how ID cards can define and shape a person’s life in the diaspora. Fatemeh’s work explores themes of migration, women’s rights, and public spaces through visual storytelling.

Sarah Austgen
Sarah has been a driving force in advancing sustainability at the University of Cincinnati since her freshman year and has shown exceptional leadership, creativity, and dedication to integrating sustainability into UC’s culture and community impact. As former Director of Education and current External Vice President of Net Impact UC, Sarah has led educational initiatives and built partnerships with the Office of Sustainability, Center for Public Engagement with Science, the School of Environment and Sustainability, and Student Government. Her efforts have helped create a more connected and accessible ecosystem for sustainability across campus. Beyond Net Impact, Sarah serves as Co-Director of Sustainability for Student Government, where she plays a key role in developing university-wide initiatives and events. Further, Sarah earned a Seeds of Change Youth Climate Action grant from the City of Cincinnati in 2025. She used those funds to install a 1,500 sqft pollinator garden adjacent to the Bearcat Pantry Garden, promoting ecosystem health on multiple levels.

Andrew Washburn
Andrew Washburn is a nontraditional student in the conventional meaning of the phrase and its literal meaning. Mr. Washburn returned to his studies after a twenty-year career in the museum and cultural heritage field. This work granted him the opportunity to work with collections and communities from the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, and the Upper South. His interests in Indigenous and settler histories and their material cultures in the long eighteenth-century are only matched by his passion for historic watercraft and experiential education. 

His broader research focuses on the pre-steam power history of the Ohio Valley region. Mr. Washburn approaches his research from an interdisciplinary angle. He incorporates history, archeology, art, Indigenous studies, and active research methods—drawing on his career in museums as well as his experience as an educator, waterman, and boatbuilder. Mr. Washburn holds a BA in History from Kenyon College and MAs from San Francsico State University (Museum Studies) and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (History). He is thrilled to have found a home for himself and his research in the Queen City. 

Cities shape human health as powerfully as medicine. Growing evidence shows that access to urban nature, trees, parks, and biodiverse green spaces. can improve physical,  mental, and social well-being. This presentation examines how neighborhood greenness influences cardiovascular health through environmental and psychosocial pathways, including reduced air pollution, lower stress, increased physical activity, stronger social cohesion, and enhanced biodiversity.

Findings from the Green Heart Project, the first large-scale randomized urban greening interventions, demonstrate that increasing tree canopy in underserved neighborhoods can measurably improve environmental conditions and reduce biological markers of cardiovascular risk. The findings suggest that designing cities with nature is not only an ecological or aesthetic choice, but a powerful public health strategy capable of preventing chronic disease and creating healthier, more resilient communities.

Speaker:

Aruni Bhatnagar, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, University of Louisville

Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar is the Smith & Lucille Gibson Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Environmental Medicine, and Director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville. 

A Fellow of the American Heart Association, he is recognized as a pioneer in the field of environmental cardiology, which examines how environmental exposures affect cardiovascular health and disease risk. His research explores how oxidative stress from internal and environmental sources contributes to cardiovascular disease. 

Dr. Bhatnagar has authored hundreds of scientific publications and is the recipient of the Norman Alpert Award by the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences and the Outstanding Mentor Award by the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools. He is the principal investigator of The Green Heart Louisville Project, a groundbreaking, community-based clinical trial to examine how an increase in neighborhood greenery affects the levels of air pollution and cardiovascular disease risk. He is also the host of the podcast “Elements of Nature.”

Join us on a walking tour of the Garden of Refuge en route to the exhibition, located in the College of DAAP.

Rooted in Between, a video projection by MA Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies/Master of Fine Arts student and Inaugural Garden of Refuge Graduate Fellow Fatemeh Rezaei. Location: College of DAAP Third Floor Atrium

Also on view: Original artwork from Cincinnati’s Foodshed: An Art Atlas with author Alan Wight. Location: College of DAAP Library