On Tuesday, December 7th, 2021, Arab Media & Society hosted a virtual panel discussion titled “Arab Media Between Conflict & Peace.” Following the panel, Managing Editor Sarah El-Shaarawi spoke with panelist Dr. Sahar Khamis about her co-edited volume Arab Women’s Activism and Socio-Political Transformation: Unfinished Gendered Revolutions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). The …
Read More »Sahar Khamis on Shifting Tides for Arabs and Muslims in the US
In light of the changes taking place in the United States, Arab Media & Society asked Dr. Sahar Khamis her thoughts on how the Arab and Muslim communities in the US have been affected. 1) What was the most notable effect of Trump’s policies on the Muslim community in the …
Read More »Rami Khouri on Lebanon’s Outlook and What Has Happened to the Country’s Media
On October 17, 2019, protests began in Lebanon with angry and largely disenfranchised citizens calling for a complete overhaul of the country’s unique political system. In the year that has followed, Lebanon has suffered through one disaster after another, with seemingly unending political shifting. On October 22, 2020, former Prime …
Read More »Filling in the Blanks: New book dives into the tragedy and complexity of post-Gadhafi Libya
Since the uprisings that spread across the Arab region took hold in Libya in 2011 and forced the removal of longtime ruler Muammar al-Gadhafi, the country’s fortunes have spiraled downwards. Despite an unsustainable system of governance, Gadhafi’s harsh rule had maintained relative stability in a country with a history of …
Read More »INTERVIEW | Past, Present, and Future Violence in Lebanese Comics
During a lecture entitled “‘I Think We Will be Calm During the Next War’: Past, Present, and Future Violence in Lebanese Comics,” Ghenwa Hayek, assistant professor of Modern Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago, discussed Lebanese comics as a means of reflecting war and conflict. After her presentation she …
Read More »PODCAST | Steven Salaita on the Limits to Academic Freedom
Steven Salaita is the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a scholar of indigenous America and has written extensively and comparatively on the question of Palestine and anti-Arab racism. He speaks with Arab Media & Society about academic freedom, tenure, the special case of Palestine, and self-regulating suppression.
Read More »PODCAST | We are all…NETWORKED.
Dr. Rasha Abdulla, associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo speaks with us about her work on big data, social media and the Egyptian Revolution. Together with a group of scholars from the University of Amsterdam, Dr. Abdulla conducted big data research using the contents of the “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook page. Dr. Abdulla was lead on an article investigating the role of the page as a venue for lessons in democratic participation.
Read More »PODCAST | Media Ethics & Migration: From Beirut to American Bombast
Veteran journalist Magda Abu-Fadil speaks with us about how the migration crisis has been covered in Lebanese media and beyond, and issues of media ethics in the Arab world. Magda Abu-Fadil brings years of experience as a foreign correspondent and editor with international news organizations such as Agence France-Presse and United Press International. She is director of Media Unlimited.
Read More »PODCAST | The Interrogation of Photojournalist Kim Badawi
Last week photojournalist Kim Badawi was detained and interrogated for over ten hours at Miami International Airport. Badawi, a French-born American citizen of Egyptian and Slovenian ancestry was apparently flagged for his time working as a journalist throughout the Arab world. He is now based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he works as a correspondent for Le Monde.
Read More »PODCAST | ISIS, Revolutionary Romance and the Seduction of Social Media
In the 1960s, marginalized and disenchanted by the social order, veteran journalist Abdallah Schleifer joined a rebellious literary movement and became a social revolutionary. Decades later, he reflects on what attracted him to the far left movement. In this excerpt from a longer conversation, Schleifer unpacks what draws marginalized youth to ISIS, articulating that just like the social revolutionary movements of the ’60s, the appeal of ISIS is not ideological, but rather existential.
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