Bowling Green, Ky. - Distinguished scholar Amahl Bishara will visit Western Kentucky University Oct. 26 to speak about her research with Palestinian journalists in the West Bank. 

This public lecture will provide a rare opportunity for WKU students, faculty and Bowling Green community members to hear a first-hand perspective about the politics of news production in the West Bank. 

Dr. Bishara’s lecture “Up Against the Wall: Palestinian Practices of Representation That Shape U.S. News Discourses About Israel’s Separation Barrier” will be held from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium. Admission is free.

Dr. Bishara spent two years working with Palestinian and Western journalists to examine how news stories get produced in the flashpoint areas of the West Bank. Dr. Bishara will speak about the politics of the Israeli separation barrier, Palestinian activism against the barrier, and the role of journalists covering this news story.

Dr. Bishara received her Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University and is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. She has written extensively about Palestinian journalists who collaborate with Western journalists to produce the stories and images of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that U.S. audiences view on their nightly news programs.

Dr. Bishara directed a 20-minute documentary “Across Oceans, Among Colleagues,” a profile of Mazen Dana, a Palestinian cameraman for Reuters who was honored with an International Press Freedom Award in 2001. Dr. Bishara has worked with the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York based non-profit organization that supports international press freedom while investigating attacks on journalists around the world.

Dr. Bishara’s visit is sponsored by the WKU Provost’s Initiatives for Excellence, the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology, and the School of Journalism and Broadcasting. 

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Kristin Dowell at (270) 745-5903.

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