MEDIA/WARS (EP2) - with Safa Al-Ahmad, Alireza Doostdar, Jasper Nathaniel, Maya Mikdashi +

MEDIA/WARS (EP2) with Safa Al-Ahmad, Alireza Doostdar, Jasper Nathaniel, Maya Mikdashi, Abdullah Baabood, Adel Iskandar, Bassam Haddad, Mouin Rabbani This episode of Media Wars comes on the heels of Israel unprecedented murderous missile attack on Beirut that claimed hundreds of lives and casualties, breaking the tenative ceasefire agreement set the night before by the United States and Iran. Our speakers and hosts will address the reality and media portrayal of the war on Iran and Lebanon, the expansion of settlements and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the precarious situation in the Arab Gulf states, as well as the nature and impact of Al-Jazeera Network. Media Wars examines the truths and absurdities of our era, centering on the US–Israel war on Iran. Fast-paced and eclectic, it blends media roundups with commentary and analysis to expose the folly and brutality of empire and imperial media. The program moves between granular detail and broad historical and geopolitical context, treating weighty, world-altering subjects in a casual, sometimes irreverent voice. Not suitable for children. Featuring: Alireza Doostdar is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Chicago and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His first book, The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny (Princeton University Press, 2018) received the 2018 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and the 2020 Vinson Sutlive Book Prize from the Anthropology Department at William & Mary. Safa Al Ahmad is a Saudi Arabian journalist and documentary filmmaker. She has produced documentaries for the BBC and PBS about uprisings in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Her 2014 BBC documentary, Saudi’s Secret Uprising, brought attention to government suppression of unreported popular demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. Jasper Nathaniel is a Brooklyn-based writer and reporter who covers the occupation through regular, on-the-ground reporting in the West Bank. He writes the Substack Infinite Jaz, and his work has appeared in The Drift, The Baffler, The Paris Review, Drop Site News, and elsewhere. Abdullah Baabood is an academic specialist in IR, Gulf, and Middle Eastern affairs, based in Oman. He holds the chair of the state of Qatar for Islamic area studies and is a visiting professor at the Faculty of International Research and Education at Waseda University in Tokyo. Baabood’s areas of expertise include the Gulf Cooperation Council’s political, economic, and social development, the Gulf States’ external relations and regional security, as well as government policies and public-private sector relations in the Gulf. Maya Mikdashi is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University, and also holds an MA from Georgetown University and a BA from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Maya is a scholar of law, the state, sovereignty, religion and secularism, and gender and sexuality. Adel Iskandar is an Associate Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University, where he is the Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies and the Chair of Graduate Studies in the School of Communication. He is the author, co-author and co-editor of numerous works including Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation(University of California Press, 2010). Iskandar is a Co-Editor of Jadaliyya. Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He has among other positions previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, and Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, and a Contributing Editor of Middle East Report 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.