Omar Al-Ghazzi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. His research expertise is in the reporting and representation of conflict, digital journalism and the politics of time and memory— with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Dr Al-Ghazzi completed his PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication, the University of Pennsylvania. He holds MAs in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and American University and a BA in Communication Arts from the Lebanese American University. His research has appeared in the field of communication’s top journals including Communication Theory, Journalism and the International Journal of Communication.

Narges Bajoghli is Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. She is an award-winning anthropologist, filmmaker, and writer. Professor Bajoghli’s academic research is at the intersections of media and power. Her first project focused on regime cultural producers in Iran, and was based on ethnographic research with Basij, Ansar-e Hezbollah, and Revolutionary Guard media producers. The resulting book, "Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic" (Stanford University Press 2019) was awarded the 2020 Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Adel Iskandar is an Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver/Burnaby, Canada. He is the author, co-author, and editor of several works including "Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution" (AUCP/OUP); "Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism" (Basic Books); "Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation" (University of California Press); "Mediating the Arab Uprisings" (Tadween Publishing); and "Media Evolution on the Eve of the Arab Spring" (Palgrave Macmillan). Iskandar's work deals with media, identity and politics; and he has lectured extensively on these topics at universities worldwide. His forthcoming publications are two monographs, one addressing the political role of memes and digital satire and the other about contemporary forms of imperial transculturalism. Iskandar's engaged participatory research includes supporting knowledge production through scholarly digital publishing such as "Jadaliyya" and academic podcasting such as "Status." His community research agenda involves showcasing local grassroots participatory creative production by communities in the Middle East to confront the rise of extremism. Iskandar's work also involves the autobiographical documentation and self-representation of Syrian newcomer women in the Lower Mainland illustrates their ingenuity in the face adversity. Prior to his arrival at SFU, Iskandar taught at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC.

William Youmans is an Associate Professor at the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. Broadly interested in questions of transnationalism, power and communication, his primary research interests include global news, law and politics. His other areas of interest include researching terrorism, American international broadcasting, Middle East politics and Arab-American studies.

Nihat Celik is a lecturer School of Public Affairs, San Diego State University. He received his PhD from Kadir Has University in 2015 with a dissertation titled “The Intentions and Capabilities of Turkey as a Regional Power: A Structural Realist Analysis (2002-2014).” He worked as a research assistant at the same university and held a visiting researcher position at Coventry University. His research areas include Turkish foreign policy, diplomatic history of the Ottoman Empire, foreign policy analysis, bureaucracy, and nonprofit organizations. His publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Turkish Studies, and Geopolitics.

Kay Dickinson dedicates her research to thinking through how various media function amid and in resistance to the machinations of transnational global capital. In particular, her recent mongraphs, Arab Cinema Travels: Transnational Syria, Palestine, Dubai and Beyond (British Film Institute Press, 2016) and Arab Film and Video Manifestos (Palgrave, 2018) involve themselves in examples, practices and analytical modes from the Arab world. Her articles on popular, experimental and revolutionary Arab media have appeared in Screen, Camera Obscura, Framework and Cinema Journal, she is the co-editor of two anthologies on these topics and has contributed to two film festivals in the West Bank. Competitive fellowships for this research have taken her to Cornell University, as well as to Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. In 2019, she was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications) in Ahmedabad, India. At present, she is working towards a monograph entitled Supply Chain Cinema, Supply Chain Education.

Zaid Fahmy is a Professor of Modern Middle East History at Cornell University’s department of Near Eastern Studies. Professor Fahmy is the author of Street Sounds: Listening to Everyday Life in Modern Egypt Opens in a new window(Stanford University Press, 2020), and Ordinary Egyptians: Creating the Modern Nation through Popular Culture (Stanford University Press, 2011)Opens in a new window. He is currently writing his third book, tentatively titled, Broadcasting Identity: Radio and the Making of Modern Egypt, 1925-1952. His articles have appeared in Comparative Studies in Society and History, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, History Compass, and in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His research has been ‎supported by the Fulbright-Hays Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Research Center in Egypt.

Hatim El-Hibri is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at George Mason University. His research and teaching interests focus on global and transnational media, visual culture, Lebanon and the Middle East, urban space, and media technology. His first book, Visions of Beirut: The Urban Life of Media Infrastructure, will be available from Duke University Press in June 2021.