Kids Under Fire (2025) Screening At GMU

Kids Under Fire (2025) Speakers: Josh Rushing is a founding member of Al Jazeera English and the Emmy-winning senior correspondent for its flagship program on America, Fault Lines. Since launching the show in 2009, Rushing has investigated the human toll of systemic injustice, covering issues such as economic disparity, gun violence, immigration, criminal justice, war, and racism. His reporting has taken him to more than 60 countries across five continents, including dozens of trips to Afghanistan and Iraq. Rushing's work has earned numerous awards, most recently: the 2024 News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Climate, Environment, and Weather Coverage, the 2023 Association of International Broadcasting Award for Sports Journalism, and the 2022 Society of Environmental Journalists Award for Outstanding Feature Story, among many others. His book, Mission Al Jazeera, was published by Palgrave MacMillan. Dr. Mimi Syed, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, is an assistant clinical professor at University of Washington and Washington State University. She is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Syed served in Gaza from August 8 to September 5, 2024, and December 3 to December 31, 2024, at both al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital. Charles O. (Cob) Blaha retired from the State Department in 2023 after a 32-year career. Before retiring, he was Director of the Office of Security and Human Rights in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor from 2016 until 2023. From 2013 until 2016 he was Director of the Bureau's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Prior to that, Mr. Blaha served in the Department's International Organizations Bureau's Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Office, and as Counselor for the Political and Specialized Agencies Section of the U.S. Mission to the UN in Geneva, where he worked primarily on issues related to the UN Human Rights Council. Mr. Blaha is currently a Senior Advisor for DAWN. Since retiring, Mr. Blaha has also written and spoken extensively on issues relating to human rights, international humanitarian law, security assistance, and arms transfers. He has been featured in national and international media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, PBS News Hour, NPR's Morning Edition, the Associated Press, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Al Jazeera, and Pro Publica. Moderator: Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press). Jadaliyya Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Jadaliyya?sub_confirmation=1 http://instagram.com/jadaliyya http://twitter.com/jadaliyya http://jadaliyya.com #Jadaliyya