AUIB Press

Dr.  Hassan Nadhem is the Senior Counselor for Cultural and Educational Affairs at the American University in Iraq – Baghdad, a former Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities, a university professor, writer, and translator. He is the founding Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair for the Development of Interreligious Dialogue Studies in the Islamic World at the University of Kufa, the Editor-in-Chief of Kufa Review, and the Founding Director of ‘Intellectual Studies’ (a series of books published by the University of Kufa). Nadhem taught in several Western and Arab universities and institutions including the Islamic College for Advanced Studies ICAS-Middlesex University (London), Nasir University in Libya, Baghdad University, and Kufa University. He published twenty authored and translated books and numerous refereed articles. His current teaching and research activities mainly involve intercultural studies, hermeneutics, and critical theory. He is a co-founder of the Hani Fahs Award for Dialogue and Religious Pluralism, a judge in the Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding, and a co-founder of the Center for Countering Hate Speech.

Dr. Christine Murray holds the Ph.D. in English (emphases in literary studies, poetics and history of rhetoric) from University of Texas-Arlington. She is Associate Professor of English and Head of Department, Humanities and Social Sciences-College of Arts and Sciences, at the American University of Iraq, Baghdad (AUIB). She has taught, designed, and led college English writing curricula in composition studies; in writing-center pedagogy and management; in technical writing for engineers; in film as narrative; in literatures of English, Spanish, French, and Ancient Greek; in philosophy; and in creative writing globally, in such places as U.A.E. (Khalifa University), China (University of Colorado), Bahrain (New York Institute of Technology), Afghanistan (American University of Afghanistan-Kabul), and the U.S. (Texas A&M University, College Station). Her research is wide-ranging, with publications and presentations in the history of rhetoric and philosophy; poetry and poetics; ethics; psychology; innovations of information technology; best practices in online-teaching and writing pedagogies; creative writing. Her book-length, scholarly manuscript (circulating for publication), “I Mustn’t Speak for Two”: Rhetorics of Address in Poetry by Women, studies rhetorical modes of multi-voicedness — apostrophe as multi-faceted voicing — in contemporary poetry. She is also a poet with an Academy of American Poets prize from University of Rochester, New York, in honor of American modernist poet, for an original collection of poetry.  Dr. Murray’s current study interests continue in literature and poetics, with new interests and article-publications studying ethics and information technology; social-psychology; multicultural epistemologies; modernism, post-modernism; post-colonialism; literary theory/criticism; Native American, Latin American, and African American cultures and literatures.

I obtained my B.A. in Library and Information Studies from the Lebanese University in 1985. Afterwards, I joined UCL (University of London) and received my master’s degree in 1989 and my Ph.D. degree in 1995 in the same specialization. I worked for Al-Hayat Arabic daily Newspaper in London as Research Editor from 1988 until 1999 and in Beirut from 1999 until 2001. Commenced university teaching at the Lebanese University in 1996. Appointed director of the Faculty of Information at the Lebanese University for two rounds from 2002 until 2007 and from 2018 until 2021. In between, I assumed the position of Director of Libraries at Qatar University form 2012 until 2017. Before that I was Manager of Iraqi journalists’ training program for three years between 2007 and 2010 at the Institute for Strategic Studies (Dirasat Iraqiya) in Beirut. In 2008, I was appointed by the Lebanese government as member of the Supervisory Commission for the 2009 Parliamentary Elections. Afterwards I was hired by the UNDP as an Election monitoring expert to produce the election report of 2018.   Since January 2019 I am a member of the Scientific Council of the Higher Institute of Doctoral Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences in the Lebanese University. I was the Chair of the IFLA MENA Regional Division Committee from July 2021 until August 2023.

Currently, I am the Dean of Libraries at the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB) since April 2021, and the professor of Library and Information Studies.

Mohamad Hamade is an economics professor with a strong academic, research and consulting background. He completed his undergraduate studies with a B.A. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics from Syracuse University in 1998. Mohamad spent the majority of his academic career as a professor of economics at Notre Dame University, Lebanon., where he also served as the chairperson of the Department of economics from 2004 till 2017. In 2021, Mohamad joined the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB), where he assumed the responsibility of Dean of the College of Business until 2023. Currently, he holds the position of professor of economics at AUIB. Mohamad’s research interests are primarily in the field of applied microeconomics, with a particular interest in the fields of economics of tourism, local public finance, and the economics of education. Currently, his research centers on understanding the impact of political instability on tourism and expatriate remittances addressing vital economic concerns. In addition to his academic work, Mohamad served as an economic consultant and provided his expertise to projects funded by the World Bank, UNDP, The European Training Foundation, FAFO (Norway) and the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education. His diverse experiences underscore his dedication to making meaningful contributions to the field of economics.

John Wall received a BA (hons) degree in philosophy and English and an MA in philosophy from University College Cork Ireland in 1988 and 1991, respectively. In 1990, John was awarded an MA in philosophy and literature from the University of Warwick, UK and a PhD in English literature in 2000 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. John also received a post-graduate diploma in the pedagogy of English language and literature, and classical studies from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2013. From 1990 to 1994, John Wall conducted research for the Centre for European Social Research in Cork, Ireland into the implementation of educational technology as part of a European-wide educational program, teaching in the social sciences as part of his duties. John taught modernist and classical literatures at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Northern Cyprus, 2002-2008 and contemporary poetry and classical literatures at the University of Balamand, Lebanon from 2009 to 2012. From 2014 to 2022, John was Associate Professor of English at the American University of Afghanistan, teaching courses in World Literature. He is currently Associate Professor of English at the American University of Iraq, Baghdad, teaching English Literature and Academic Writing. John has published articles on the poetics of the body in European modernism—Samuel Beckett and Tristan Tzara, in particular. He has edited two volumes of essays on the production of cultural space and the function of popular music in contemporary society, where his own contributions focused on notions of embodied space in post-modernist writing and musical composition. He has also worked on cross-disciplinary projects, contributing to published articles on IT and economics. John Wall’s current research explores literary aesthetics using Gilles Deleuze’s concepts of intensive space and metamorphosis. John writes fiction and has published one short story.

Muslih Irwani Associate Professor of Social and Public Policy at the American University of Iraq – Baghdad. He obtained his PhD in Social Policy and Administration from the University of Nottingham – UK. His research interests cover social protection, governance and social policy, migration, displacement and social cohesion. He provides policy advice and consultancy in the areas of minorities, displacement, social protection and development. Irwani has taught at various universities including American University of Kurdistan in Duhok, Salahaddin University and the University of Kurdistan Hawlêr (in Erbil), and Nottingham University (in the UK). He is Co-Investigator on the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) Gender, Justice and Security Hub funded by UKRI. He is also a Visiting Fellow at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Constantin Katsakioris holds a PhD in contemporary history from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (EHESS, 2015). He was a junior researcher at the EHESS in the project “African Elites Educated in the former Socialist Bloc” (2012-2015), a lecturer and visiting professor at the universities of Leipzig and Bayreuth in Germany (2015-2020), and at the same time a member of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, a fellow of the German Orient Institute in Beirut, Lebanon (2019-2021), and a senior PRIMUS researcher and lecturer in the Institute of World History at Charles University in Prague (2021-2023). He is currently an Associate Professor of History at the American University of Iraq-Baghdad.

Jeffrey Bellows holds a D.B.A. in Business Administration from Durham University with a focus on management. Launched two (2) MBA programs at different universities. Fourteen (14) years of university-level lecturing experience in business administration, management, organizational behavior, leadership, and entrepreneurship classes. Voted most outstanding business lecturer for three (3) years by 5,000+ student population. Widely known writer in the Business Daily newspaper on management, entrepreneurship, and leadership with over 530 articles. Extensive grant writing and grant management experience for research and programmatic grants. Brought thirteen (13) research and programmatic grants to his university employers. Founded and managed an entrepreneurship incubation hub at the University. Vast executive leadership positions in corporate, non-profit, and education management across North America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Pacific, and Latin America.