Daniele Rugo 

Dr Daniele Rugo is an award winning filmmaker and Reader in Film at Brunel University London and is also currently a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Middle East Campus. His research focuses on conflict and sustainable peace and has been funded by AHRC, ESRC and British Academy. About a War is his latest feature documentary. He is the author of two monographs, one edited volume and several journal articles. He is an affiliate of the Centre for Lebanese Studies in Beirut and has been an associate of the American University of Beirut.

Contact: daniele.rugo@brunel.ac.uk

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Carmen Abou Jaoude

Dr Carmen Abou Jaoude - Centre for the Study of the Modern Arab World, University of Saint Joseph, Beirut - is a transitional justice expert and former Head of Lebanon’s branch of the International Centre for Transitional Justice. She is also a lecturer at American University of Beirut and the University of Kaslik. She has published extensively and supervised projects using arts-based approaches including the project “Badna Naaref” (We Want to Know), which culminated in a documentary film. She is part of the advisory board of Act for the Disappeared, an NGO that lobbies for the creation of a national commission to investigate the fate of the missing from the Lebanese Civil War. 

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Nina Parish

Nina is a Professor of French and Francophone Studies in the Literature and Languages Division at the University of Stirling. She works on representations of difficult history, the migrant experience and multilingualism in the museum space. Between 2016 and 2019 she was part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 UNREST team working on innovative memory practices in sites of trauma including war museums and mass graves (www.unrest.eu). She is also an expert on the interaction between text and image in the field of modern and contemporary French Studies. She has published widely on this subject, in particular, on the poet and visual artist, Henri Michaux. 

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Abi Weaver

Abi Weaver is an award winning producer/director who has worked across a range of visual media from independent feature documentaries and online shorts through to programming for major UK broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5). Her latest film About a War explores violence and social change through the testimonies of ex-fighters from the Lebanese Civil War. Abi is also a TECHNE researcher at the University of Surrey working on the voice in the filmed documentary interview through the lens of Levinasian philosophy. She is an affiliate of the Centre for Lebanese Studies at LAU in Beirut.

 

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Laban

Laban is a theatre company that uses improvisational theatre to engage with communities affected by violent conflict, with the goal of opening dialogue and create a safe space for people to share experiences, and to begin to connect. Laban's work takes the form of civil society activism through training programmes and Playback Theater, a form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot. Over the years Laban has worked with many groups affected by violent conflict, from former militiamen of the Lebanese Civil War, to young people who took part in the clashes in Tripoli. 

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Advisors

Salma Kahale - Dawlaty 

Salma is Founder and Executive Director of Dawlaty, a Syrian NGO that works on civic engagement, transitional justice and nonviolent resistance in Syria, building capacity and supporting human rights and conflict management. The project was established in 2012 by a group of Syrians who believe in collective civil resistance as a means for change.

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Ziad Abdel Samad - Executive Director - Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND)

ANND is an independent, democratic, and civic organization that aims at strengthening civil society and enhancing the values of democracy, sustainable development and protection of cultural heritage in the Arab region. Mr. Abdel Samad is also a

member of the coordination group of the Civil Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) and President of the Euro-Mediterranean NGO Platform.

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Sana Yazigi - Founder, The Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution

Sana is the founder and editor in chief of the archiving project, 'The Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution'; a website that archives and documents all types of creative expressions and initiatives produced since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011 until the present day.