Jamila Hammami (they/them/theirs) is a Texan, organizer, educator, writer, researcher, consultant, abolitionist social worker, and PhD student. For nearly 20 years, Jamila has organized in labor, LGBTQIA TS & GNC/ HIV+, racial/migrant/reproductive justice, and anti-imperialist movements. Jamila is a Ph.D. student of Social Welfare studying Community Organizing and Social Movements, with a focus on migration and no borders at CUNY Graduate Center and is an adjunct lecturer in the Africana Studies department at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Their most recent book chapter, “Bridging Immigration Justice and Prison Abolition”, is published in Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention and Deportation. Additionally, Jamila is a co-PI on an IRB Community Action Research study on criminalization and resistance of Immigrant and Muslim communities.

Jamila is humbled to have received several recognitions, honors, and awards for their work, and is a Frederick Douglass Bicentennial 200 Abolitionist honoree. Jamila is a steering committee member of the Open Borders Conference and serves on the Board of Directors of the Free Migration Project. Prior to Ph.D. school, Jamila was the founding executive director of the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. Jamila holds an MSW in Community Organizing & Program Development with a focus in Immigrants and Refugees from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and a BSW from the University of North Texas. Jamila lives in Brooklyn, New York.