In cities across the world, walls, bridges, and buildings often serve as canvases for stories of identity, protest, and belonging. Despite their visibility, the artists and ideas behind these public works often go unnoticed in academic conversations. The Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Project (HCUAP), founded in 2016, seeks to change that by fostering dialogue, education, and engagement around urban art as a powerful form of communication.
At the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Dr. Caitlin Bruce connects this mission to the Department of Communication. As a programming director for HCUAP, Dr. Bruce recruits student interns each year who are interested in applying skills taught in Communication Rhetoric courses to real-world research and outreach. This year, two such students joined HCUAP as Research and Writing interns: Briana Bindus is a BPhil candidate in English literature with a double major in Communication Rhetoric, Tori Casarella is majoring in English Writing (Non-Fiction), Communication Rhetoric, and Law, Criminal Justice, and Society.
Their involvement stemmed from a shared curiosity about the intersections of communication, art, and public space. During the 2024-2025 academic year, Bindus and Casarella saw HCAUP’s call for interns on the COMMRC Canvas page and were excited by the opportunity to contribute to this unique area of study.
Casarella’s interest was sparked by a piece she read in a nonfiction writing class about the closure of a bridge in Oakland that had served as a space for artistic expression. “People were saddened by its closing as they felt that having this space for personal and political expression was so important,” Casarella said. “When I heard about the HCUAP internship it felt very entangled with this idea of street art as a form of expression that really resonated with me.”
Bindus was drawn to the research aspect of the internship. “I’m really interested in research writing because it's a skill that aligns with my other major in English Literature and so when I saw that HCUAP was looking for research interns I thought it would be interesting to apply,” Bindus said. “I knew of Dr. Bruce from the Communication Department and thought that it would be awesome to work within my major to research the public sphere and how people are impacted by their urban environment.”
Throughout their internships, Bindus and Casarella have had the freedom to explore topics that align with HCUAP’s overall mission. Bindus has been working on research profiles on Honolulu and Hong Kong, which will be published in the spring. Casarella has been conducting interviews with Pittsburgh community members and street artists to document spaces of legal street art expression.
Together, they also covered the visiting artists residency hosted in Pittsburgh this September.
“Tori and I went to all the visiting artist events to document them by taking pictures, videos, running social media accounts, interviewing the artists and so much more. It was really fun not just to be a part of the HCUAP team but to also get to know all of the artists we were collaborating with,” Bindus said. “At the end of all the events, Tori and I were given the opportunity to write a long form magazine article about the visiting artist residency which was just recently published in Petrichor Magazine.”
Beyond professional development and portfolio building, the internships also offered opportunities to learn about the lived experiences of street artists.
Casarella, who hopes to attend law school, found it enlightening to learn how politicized and stigmatized street art can be. “I have very much enjoyed hearing the female perspective of street art. …Hearing about the intersectionality of these women being in these fields …and how they navigate their community with so much grace, really resonated with me,” Casarella said. “As we work with HCUAP to fight the stigma that surrounds this community, I think it’s important to acknowledge individual stories and experiences.”
For Bindus, the experience has broadened her understanding of what a Communication degree can offer. She reflected, “Through this internship I came to understand the nuances of communication as a field of study,” Bindus said. “It was really eye opening and inspiring, especially as someone who's about to graduate, to see that there is a space for me somewhere. There are things that I love to do and could do as a careerthat would still fulfill me and still connect me with larger communities that I might not otherwise have been introduced to.”
Overall, both Bindus and Casarella expressed appreciation for the groundbreaking research by Dr. Bruce and her HCUAP collaborators.
“I think Dr. Bruce's work in street art and studying the ways that street art is a form of communication is something that is super interesting and something that people might not really think about when they hear the word communication,” Bindus said. “HCUAP is really doing something to deepen the field that helped me understand communication in a new way.”
Students interested in contributing to HCUAP’s mission of creating platforms for conversation and education about street art are encouraged to apply to the HCUAP internship program.