2007

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC.

Born on June 15, 1951 into a working class family in the south-western city of Ahvaz in the Khuzestan province of Iran, Hamid Dabashi received his early education in his hometown and his college education in Tehran, before he moved to the United States, where he received a dual Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University.

Jennifer Bing-Canar is interim national coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)’s Israel-Palestine Peacebuilding Program. Jennifer's involvement in Middle East issues began in 1982 when she lived and traveled in Israel and Palestine and researched the Israeli peace movement. Jennifer later returned to work at the Ramallah Friends Schools in the West Bank where she taught middle school and high school boys for three years.

Tariq Nasir was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, to an American mother and a Palestinian father.

He grew up in Palestine until just after the 1967 war, when as refugees, his family moved to Jordan. He attended university in London, receiving a degree in International Business in 1985. Soon afterwards he began his career in banking, and at a young age began raising a family.

In 2004, after a successful career in the financial industry, Tariq decided to retire from his position at a large investment firm, and committed himself to finding his voice as a documentary filmmaker.