{"id":199,"date":"2021-05-06T04:19:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T04:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/advisory-board\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T10:15:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T08:15:45","slug":"international-board-extraordinary-council","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/","title":{"rendered":"International Board & Advisory Board"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Laila Al-Qatami<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Laila Al-Qatami<\/strong> has extensive experience in management and strategic communications for cultural organizations, non-profit associations, financial institutions, corporations, and governments. Currently, she is the Chief Communications Officer for Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait. Previously, she was the Managing Director for the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) in Kuwait, one of the largest cultural complexes in the world. She also directed external relations and corporate social responsibility for Gulf Bank \u2013 Kuwait; directed communications and operations for the Executive Office in Diwan of HH The Prime Minister of Kuwait; and headed marketing and outreach for the for the National Center for Documentation and Research of the UAE Ministry of Presidential Affairs. When Laila was based in Washington, DC, she was the spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and a regular commentator for domestic and international media discussing Arabs and Muslims. Laila is a founding board member of Soroptimist Kuwait, a licensed Kuwaiti NGO and chapter of a worldwide service organization for women and girls, most recently serving as its Vice President. She was a member of the National Board of Directors of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the largest civil rights organization in the US (2006-2012) and was a mentor for Georgetown University students in the Patrick Healy Fellows Program (2006-2009).\u00a0 She has a B.S. from the University of Colorado, an M.A. from Georgetown University, and is a certified Sustainability practitioner.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Wanis El Kabbaj<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wanis<\/span>\u00a0El<\/span>\u00a0Kabbaj<\/span><\/strong> is a globally-minded marketing professional with dual French-Moroccan citizenship.\u00a0 Having grown up in a family fond of literature and around books of Amin Maalouf, Taha Hussein, Naguib Mahfouz, he developed a deep appreciation for powerful storytelling. which drove him to deliver two TED Talks on the future of urban transportation and the ambivalent relationship between nationalisms and globalization that garnered 6 million views worldwide.\u00a0Wanis<\/span> champions equitable environments, fostering collaboration and driving positive change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Philip Grant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philip Grant<\/strong>\u00a0is a Persian-English and French-English translator based in Los Angeles. He has worked as an academic anthropologist and sociologist at the University of Edinburgh and the University of California, Irvine, as well as a non-profit researcher in philosophy of technology, and in investment management. He is co-author of\u00a0Chains of Finance<\/i>\u00a0(OUP, 2017), and is currently working on a history of the Zanj Rebellion. An article on silk cloth in the Zanj Rebellion will be coming out in\u00a0al-\u02bfU\u1e63\u016br al-Wus\u1e6d\u0101<\/span><\/i>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Deborah Kapchan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Deborah Kapchan<\/strong><\/a> is a writer, translator, ethnographer and a professor of Performance Studies at New York University. A Guggenheim fellow, she is the author of\u00a0Gender on the Market: Moroccan Women and the Revoicing of Tradition<\/i>\u00a0(1996),\u00a0Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Music and Trance in the Global Marketplace<\/i>\u00a0(2007), as well as other works on sound, narrative and poetics. She translated and edited a volume entitled\u00a0Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Moroccan Contemporary Poetry<\/i>\u00a0(2020), which was shortlisted for ALTA\u2019s National Translation Award for Poetry.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Talal al-Muhanna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Talal al-Muhanna<\/strong> is a film producer and cultural manager. Through his creative label Linked Productions, he has produced award-winning documentary and fiction films by Arab filmmakers. As Senior Producer at Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre in Kuwait, Talal produced multi-media performances with a wide variety of international artists from 2017-2022. Talal\u2019s films have been supported by Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute and Cinereach (USA); Hot Docs Blue Ice Group Fund (Canada); British Film Institute (UK); Visions Sud Est (Switzerland); Arab Fund for Arts & Culture (Lebanon); and Enjaaz (UAE); these films were selected at numerous festivals and broadcast in Europe, the Americas and MENA. ITVS documentary \u201cWhose Country?\u201d \u2013 which he co-wrote \u2013 won Best in Journalism at BBC Arabic Film Festival. Talal holds a BA and MA in Film & Moving Image Production from Leeds Beckett University. In 2015, he was a Producing Fellow at the Center for Asian American Media and, in 2020, received British Council Kuwait\u2019s Professional Achievement Award for his work as a media producer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mai Al-Nakib<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mai Al-Nakib<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was born in Kuwait and spent the first six years of her life in London; Edinburgh; and St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a PhD in English literature from Brown University and is Associate Professor of English and comparative literature at Kuwait University. Her academic research focuses on cultural politics in the Middle East, with a special emphasis on gender, cosmopolitanism, and postcolonial issues. Her short story collection, The Hidden Light of Objects<\/em>, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. It won the Edinburgh International Book Festival\u2019s First Book Award. Her debut novel,\u00a0An Unlasting Home<\/em>\u2014published by Mariner Books in the US and Saqi in the UK\u2014comes out in paperback in April 2023. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in various publications, including Ninth Letter; The First Line; After the Pause; World Literature Today; <\/em>and the BBC World Service. She lives in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"
Terence Ward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Terence Ward<\/strong> is a writer, producer, and cultural consultant who\u00a0grew up in Arabia and Iran before attending\u00a0the American University of Cairo and\u00a0the University of\u00a0California at\u00a0Berkeley. Based in Athens for 10 years, he advised governments and industries\u00a0across\u00a0the Gulf with\u00a0MEIRC.\u00a0His memoir\u00a0Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran<\/i>\u00a0was published in seven languages including two Persian editions. His other books are:\u00a0The Wahhabi Code: How the Saudis Spread Extremism Globally<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life.\u00a0<\/i>He’s appeared on\u00a0CNN\u00a0with Christiane Amanpour,\u00a0PBS, C-SPAN, BBC,\u00a0RAI-TV\u00a0while his writing’s been published by the\u00a0LA Times<\/i>,\u00a0Huffington Post<\/i>,\u00a0CNN<\/i>,\u00a0The Ecologist<\/i>,\u00a0Il Manifesto<\/i>,\u00a0La Stampa<\/i>, and\u00a0Reset<\/i>.\u00a0His award-winning docs include: \u201cBlack Africa White Marble,\u201d and \u201cTalk Radio Tehran\u201d. Ward lives in Florence and serves as an ambassador for\u00a0Religions for Peace,\u00a0<\/i>the world\u2019s largest inter-faith organization.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

ADVISORY BOARD<\/h4>\n
\"Ammiel
Ammiel Alcalay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AMMIEL ALCALAY<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2014Poet, novelist, translator, scholar and activist Ammiel Alcalay was born and raised in Boston. He studied Latin and ancient Greek at City College in New York and earned his PhD in comparative literature from the CUNY Graduate Center. His parents were Sephardic Jews from Belgrade (Serbia), and much of Alcalay’s work engages questions of religious identity, language, and culture, particularly the histories and cultures of the Balkans and the Middle East. He is the author of the classic study After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture; Keys to the Garden; Memories of Our Future: Selected Essays and the cairo notebooks [sic] among other works. Alcalay founded and is general editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. The chapbook series publishes student and guest-edited archival texts of writers and activists, frequently focusing on correspondence, journals, lectures, and ephemera. Alcalay won the American Book Award for his work on Lost & Found in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"KAI BIRD<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist. In January 2017 he was appointed Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer of CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy Center for Biography. His most recent book, The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames<\/em>, was a New York Times best-seller. He chronicled his childhood in the Middle East in his memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis<\/em>\u2013which was a Finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is the acclaimed author of biographies of John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy, and William Bundy. He won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2006 for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer<\/em> (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin). His work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA. Bird and Sherwin also won the National Books Critics Circle Award and the Duff Cooper Prize for History. In September 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Carleton College. He is an elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians. Kai Bird lives in New York City and Florida with his wife Susan Goldmark. His new book, due out in the summer of 2021, is The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter<\/em>. @Kaibird123<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Nathalie Handal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NATHALIE HANDAL<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0was raised in Latin America, France and the Middle East, and educated in the United States, United Kingdom and Asia.\u00a0\u00a0Her recent poetry books include <\/span>Life in A Country Album<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0winner of the 2020 Palestine Book Award and finalist for the Foreword Book Award;\u00a0the flash collection\u00a0The Republics<\/i>,\u00a0lauded as \u201cone of the most inventive books by one of today\u2019s most diverse writers,\u201d\u00a0and winner of the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing, and the Arab American Book Award; the critically acclaimed\u00a0Poet in Andaluc\u00eda\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0The Invisible Star<\/i>;\u00a0and Love and Strange Horses<\/i>, winner of the Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award.\u00a0She is the editor of two anthologies, and her work has appeared in\u00a0Vanity Fair, Guernica Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Nation, The Irish Times,\u00a0<\/i>among others. Handal is the recipient of awards from the PEN Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, Centro Andaluz de las Letras, Fondazione di Venezia, The Africa Institute, among others. She is professor of literature and creative writing at New York University, and writes the literary travel column \u2018The City and the Writer\u2019 for\u00a0Words without Borders<\/i>\u00a0magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Rana Kazkaz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RANA KAZKAZ<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is an award-winning filmmaker. With a focus on Syrian stories, her portfolio includes\u00a0Mare Nostrum<\/em> (2016) which has been selected in over 100 international film festivals and won more than 30 awards, the documentary Searching for the Translator<\/em>\u00a0(2016), Ham<\/em>\u00a0(2013),\u00a0Deaf Day<\/em>\u00a0(2011),\u00a0Exquisite Corpse<\/em> (2009) and\u00a0Kemo Sabe<\/em> (2007). Her first feature The Translator<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2021) won several grants and development awards including the Arte Award at L\u2019Atelier de la Cinefondation at the Cannes Film Festival (2017), the CNC Award at Meetings on the Bridge at the Istanbul Film Festival (2017) and a Tribeca Alumni Grant (2018). Her current film projects include Honest Politics<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Foolishness of God: My Forgiveness Journey with Desmond Tutu<\/em>. She is an assistant professor of communication in residence at Northwestern Qatar who teaches narrative filmmaking.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Anne-Marie O’Connor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ANNE-MARIE O\u2019CONNOR<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 is the author of\u00a0The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt\u2019s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer<\/em>, the bestselling story of the battle by Vienna emigre Maria Altmann to reclaim five Gustav Klimt paintings from her native Austria in an eight-year legal battle, a saga that also inspired the movie Woman in Gold<\/em><\/a>, in which Helen Mirren played Maria Altmann.\u00a0A former Jerusalem correspondent, Anne-Marie is a longtime journalist in Latin America, and covered the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador as a Central America bureau chief for Reuters<\/a>. She was also a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times<\/a>, the Miami Herald, UPI, and the Cox Newspaper chain, and has written for Esquire, the Christian Science Monitor, and The Nation. She is a speaker on the subject of the Nazi plunder<\/a> of art and restitution. Her twitter handle is @theladyingold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Viola Shafik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VIOLA SHAFIK<\/b><\/a> \u2014 is a filmmaker, curator and film scholar. She is the author of Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity (<\/em>AUC Press 1998\/2016), Popular Egyptian Cinema: Gender, Class and Nation<\/em> (AUC Press 2007), Resistance, Dissidence, Revolution:\u00a0Documentary\u00a0Film Aesthetics\u00a0in the Middle East and North Africa<\/em>\u00a0(forthcoming from Routledge, 2023) and the editor of\u00a0Documentary Filmmaking in the Middle East and North Africa<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>(AUC Press 2022). She has taught at the American University in Cairo, Zurich University, Humboldt University and Ludwig Maximilian, Munich where she held the position of a researcher 2016-2020.\u00a0 She served as the Head of Studies of the Documentary Campus MENA, curator and consultant for numerous international film festivals and film funds, such as La Biennale di Venezia, the Berlinale, Dubai Film Market, Rawi Screen Writers Lab, Torino Film Lab and the World Cinema Fund. She directed several documentaries, among others The Lemon Tree\/Shajarat al-laymun<\/i>\u00a0(1993),\u00a0Planting of Girls\/Mawsim zaraa al-banat<\/i>\u00a0(1999),\u00a0Jannat `Ali-Ali im Paradies\/My Name is not Ali\u00a0<\/em>(2011) and\u00a0Arij – Scent of Revolution<\/i>\u00a0(2014).\u00a0<\/i>Current works in progress are\u00a0Home Movie on Location\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Der Gott in St\u00fccken.<\/i>\u00a0Viola Shafik is the guest editor of TMR’s BERLIN issue.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"ELLA SHOHAT<\/strong><\/a>\u2014is Professor of Cultural Studies at NYU. Her books include Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices<\/em>; Israeli Cinema: East\/West and the Politics of Representation<\/em>; Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age<\/em>; Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Perspectives<\/em>; Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora<\/em>; and with Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism<\/em>; Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality and Transnational Media<\/em>; Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism<\/em>; and Race in Translation: Culture Wars Around the Postcolonial Atlantic<\/em>. She co-edited a number of special issues for the journal Social Text, including \u201cEdward Said: A Memorial Issue,\u201d \u201cPalestine in a Transnational Context,\u201d and \u201c911-A Public Emergency?\u201d while her writing has been translated into over 10 languages. Shohat has also served on the editorial board of several journals, including: Social Text; Middle East Critique; Meridians; Interventions; and Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. She is a recipient of such fellowships as Rockefeller and the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, where she also taught at The School of Criticism and Theory; together with Sinan Antoon, she was awarded the NYU Humanities Initiative fellowship for their \u201cNarrating Iraq: Between Nation and Diaspora;\u201d and Shohat was awarded a Fulbright research \/ lectureship at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, for studying the cultural intersections between the Middle East and Latin America. She is author most recently of On the Arab-Jew, Palestine and Other Displacements<\/em> & Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora<\/em>. Ella Shohat is from a Jewish-Baghdadi family, grew up in Israel and has lived most of her life in New York.<\/p>\n

\"Amy
Amy Wilentz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AMY WILENTZ<\/strong><\/a>\u2014Amy Wilentz is the author of Farewell Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti<\/em>, The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier<\/em>, the novel Martyrs\u2019 Crossing<\/em>, and I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen: Coming to California in the Age of Schwarzenegger<\/em>. She is the winner of the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN Martha Albrand Non-Fiction Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award. In 1990 she was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction for The Rainy Season. <\/em>She won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for memoir for Farewell, Fred Voodoo<\/em>, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in general nonfiction in 2020. Wilentz is MacDowell fellow, the former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker and a long-time contributing editor at The Nation<\/a>. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, The London Review of Books, <\/em>the Los Angeles Review of Books, and many other publications. She teaches in the Literary Journalism program at the University of California at Irvine, and lives in Los Angeles. She tweets @amywilentz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

EMERITI<\/h4>\n

DR MEHNAZ M. AFRIDI<\/h4>\n

Professor Mehnaz M. Afridi<\/a> is the Director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College in the Bronx, where she teaches contemporary Islam and the Holocaust. The author of the 2017 title Shoah Through Muslim Eyes<\/em>, she taught Judaism and Islam at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Originally from Pakistan, raised in Europe and the Middle East, she brings a multicultural perspective to Islam. Her deep interest in Judaism and Modern Jewish Diaspora has led her to numerous interfaith conferences, invitations by non-Muslims to expound on the intellectual and theological similarities between Jews and Muslims. Her recent research projects are focused in Italy, Muslims and Jews in Italian culture; she taught in Rome and received a grant from the National Endowment of Humanities to attend a seminar in Venice, Italy. Read an article<\/a> about Mehnaz\u2019s \u201cAsk a Muslim\u201d lecture series. Mehnaz once presented her talk, An Illuminated History of Jewish-Muslim Relations<\/em> at Levantine Cultural Center.<\/p>\n

DR REZA ASLAN<\/h4>\n

Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a contributing editor at the Daily Beast<\/a>. Reza Aslan has degrees in Religions from Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors for both the Ploughshares Fund, which gives grants for peace and security issues, Abraham\u2019s Vision, an interfaith peace organization, and PEN USA, as well as The Markaz\/Levantine Cultural Center\u2019s national advisory board.<\/p>\n

Aslan\u2019s first book is the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0bestseller,\u00a0No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam<\/em><\/a>, which has been translated into thirteen languages, short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award in the UK, and nominated for a PEN USA award for research Non-Fiction. His most recent book is\u00a0How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror<\/em>, followed by an edited anthology,\u00a0Words Without Borders: Writings from the Middle East<\/em>, which will be published by Norton in 2010.He has written for the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>,\u00a0Slate<\/em>,\u00a0Boston Globe<\/em>, the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, the\u00a0Nation<\/em>, and others, and has appeared on Meet The Press, Hardball, The Daily Show, The Tavis Smiley Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, and Nightline.<\/p>\n

Aslan is Cofounder and Chief Creative Officer of\u00a0BoomGen Studios<\/a>, the first ever motion picture company focused entirely on entertainment about the Greater Middle East and its Diaspora communities, as well as Editorial Executive of\u00a0Mecca.com<\/a>. Born in Iran, he now\u00a0Reza Aslan has been a frequent guest on the Daily Show and many other cable news stations. His many books and edited anthologies are important contributions to the dialogue about Islam and the West, and US \u2013 Iran relations. He is now the Wallerstein Professor at Drew University\u2019s Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

DR SAMI SHALOM CHETRIT<\/h4>\n

Sami Shalom Chetrit is a dissident Israeli poet, educator, filmmaker and historian whose latest book The Mizrahi Struggle in Israel: 1948-2003<\/em>, has been translated into Arabic by Samir Ayash and published by Madar (Ramallah). Chetrit received his Ph.D in 2001 from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Political Science, writing on Mizrahi politics in Israel. He received a Master of International Affairs in 1991 from Columbia University, with a specialization in Middle Eastern studies. He was born in 1960 in Morocco and grew up in an immigrant working class neighborhood in the port city of Ashdod. His published poetry includes Poems in Ashdodians<\/em>, poems from 1982-2002 (Andalus, 2003). Several of his poems appear in English translation in the anthology Keys to the Garden<\/em> (City Lights 1999), edited by Ammiel Alcalay. In 2003 he co-produced and directed with Eli Hamo (cinematography and editing) the documentary film \u201cThe Black Panthers (in Israel) Speak.\u201d His new documentary is \u201cCome Mother\u201d on his mother\u2019s generation of Moroccan women in Israel.<\/p>\n

PETER COLE<\/h4>\n

Peter Cole is the winner of a 2007 MacArthur Award<\/a>. He is a translator, publisher, and poet who brings the often overlooked works of medieval Spain and the modern Middle East to English-speaking audiences.\u00a0 His highly regarded translations of the poetry of Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Shmuel HaNagid, two of the great Hebrew poets of the Andalusian \u201cGolden Age,\u201d offer readers a lyrical illustration of the extraordinary Arab-Jewish cultural partnership that flourished in tenth- through twelfth-century Spain.<\/p>\n

A poet himself, Cole\u2019s translations infuse medieval verse with contemporary meaning while remaining faithful to the original text.\u00a0 His renderings of HaNagid\u2019s poems in particular, long regarded as \u201cuntranslatable,\u201d retain the subtleties, complexities, and formal elegance of the original verse.\u00a0 Underlying Cole\u2019s translations is an implicit message of cultural and historical cross-fertilization that is also evident in his work as a poet and a publisher.\u00a0 His Ibis Editions<\/a> publishes little-known works translated from Arabic, Hebrew, German, French, and Ladino, enlightening English-speaking audiences to the thriving literary tradition of the Levant.\u00a0 By fostering literary dialogue in and about the Middle East, Ibis provides an occasion for intellectual and cultural collaboration.\u00a0 In a region mired in conflict, Cole\u2019s dedication to the literature of the Levant offers a unique and inspiring vision of the cultural, religious, and linguistic interactions that were and are possible among the peoples of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Peter Cole began his undergraduate studies at Williams College (1975-1977) and received a B.A. (1980) from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.\u00a0 He is the author of two volumes of poetry,\u00a0Rift<\/em>\u00a0(1989) and\u00a0Hymns & Qualms<\/em>\u00a0(1998), and has also published many volumes of translation from Hebrew and Arabic, including\u00a0Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid<\/em>\u00a0(1996),\u00a0Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol<\/em>\u00a0(2001),\u00a0Taha Muhammad Ali\u2019s So What: New and Selected Poems, 1971-2005<\/em>\u00a0(2006), and\u00a0The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492<\/em>\u00a0(2007).\u00a0 He is the co-editor of Ibis Editions, which he co-founded in 1998, and has been a visiting writer and professor at Wesleyan University, Middlebury College, and Yale University\u2019s Whitney Center for the Humanities in the fall of 2006.<\/p>\n

Among Cole\u2019s translations from contemporary Hebrew and Arabic poetry and fiction are also Love & Selected Poems of Aharon Shabtai<\/em> (Sheep Meadow), J\u2019Accuse<\/em>, by Aharon Shabtai (New Directions), So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971-2005<\/em> by Taha Muhammad Ali (Copper Canyon Press), The Collected Poems of Avraham Ben Yitzhak<\/em> (Ibis) and The Shunra and the Schemetterling<\/em>, by Yoel Hoffmann (New Directions).<\/p>\n

Cole has received numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the 1998 Modern Language Association Translation Award. J\u2019Accuse received the 2004 PEN-America Award for Poetry in Translation.<\/p>\n

DORIT CYPIS<\/h4>\n

Dorit Cypis\u00a0is\u00a0an award winning artist, educator and mediator. Her work has been presented internationally at museums and other cultural contexts.\u00a0Foreign Exchanges,<\/em>\u00a0an initiative since 2007, offers conflict engagement and diversity skills through mediation and aesthetics. Dorit is Founding Member,\u00a0Mediators Beyond Borders<\/em>\u00a0and past Chair\/MBB Middle East Initiative<\/em>; she founded\u00a0Kulture Klub Collaborative<\/em>, artists working with homeless youth to bridge survival and inspiration; directed\u00a0FAR, Foundation for Art Resources<\/em>, partnering with private and public organizations to support cultural production in urban settings by artists.\u00a0On Policing<\/em>, a current project,\u00a0<\/em>weaves her strengths to design community development events in vulnerable neighborhoods where local youth and police officers engage through collaborative and interdependent efforts.\u00a0Dorit was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rauschenberg Foundation Residency in 2014 and\u00a0has taught\u00a0throughout USA, Canada, Israel, Holland and France.\u00a0She earned a Masters of Fine Art, California Institute for the Arts, and Masters\u00a0of Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University.<\/p>\n

DR NILE REGINA EL WARDANI<\/h4>\n

Nile Regina El Wardani,\u00a0<\/strong>MPH, MPhil, Ph.D. currently lectures at CSUSM.edu, UCSD.edu and SDSU.edu in Global Public Health. Previously she taught at \u00a0the American University in Cairo, Egypt in the Graduate School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.\u00a0 A multi-cultural person, Nile speaks English, French, Arabic and Spanish. She holds a PhD and MPhil from the University of London in Public Policy and a Master in Public Health from UCLA.<\/p>\n

She has worked for over 25 years in Africa, the Middle East and USA as a program manager\/business developer in the fields of public health and international development. She specializes in public health education, human rights, reproductive health and women\u2019s empowerment. She was awarded the Middle East Award for Social Science Research for her research on policy, governance, human rights, and civil society. Nile has consulted for UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and the Egyptian Ministries of Health, Education and Information. She has worked with bilateral donors including USAID, Finnida, Danida and Dutch Aid and many NGOS in the ME and Africa.<\/p>\n

In the cultural realm, Nile has produced for the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Music Festival, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall as well as venues in Paris and Cairo. Dedicated to improving lives and bridging gaps between people, Nile produced the world\u2019s first pediatric AIDS benefit at Carnegie Hall in 1989 that was televised on NBC. A visionary, Nile subsequently developed the indigenous Egyptian production of Sesame Street\u00a0(Alam Simsim)<\/em>\u00a0with a focus on nutrition, safety and hygiene.<\/p>\n

In media, she co-hosted\/produced\u00a0Radio Intifada<\/em>\u00a0(for five years) a weekly one-hour radio show covering the politics and culture of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on Pacifica Radio 90.7 FM (Los Angeles). She currently serves on the UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Board of Directors and the Advisory Board of\u00a0Levantine Cultural Center<\/em>\u00a0which champions a greater understanding of the Middle East\/North Africa (MENA) region by presenting cultural and educational programs that bridge political and religious divides. She continues to cover culture, travel and design for\u00a0Obelisque<\/em>\u00a0Magazine (Cairo, Egypt) and blogs at\u00a0www.nileelwardani.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BANA HILAL<\/h4>\n

Bana Hilal was born and raised in Beirut, where she received her B.A. from the American University of Beirut. She also has an Interior Designer Degree from the Newport Beach Interior Designer Institute, and has worked in real estate property management. Bana is a community activist who has long committed herself to humanitarian issues that involve empowering women and assisting underprivileged children, as well building bridge of understanding between diverse communities. She is Co- President of AAUW (American Association of University Women), Laguna Beach Branch\u2014an international women\u2019s organization that advocates equity for women. She is active with the American University of Beirut, and the Daniel Bliss Society Leadership Committee, and is past president of the Lebanese Ladies Cultural Society, an organization that teaches underprivileged students in Lebanon. She is also President and Founder of WIN, Women\u2019s Intellectual Network in Orange County, a group that dedicates itself to building a strong community of women. She is a past board member of Contacts of Orange County, professional women\u2019s group, past board member of Art Matrix, an organization that encourages art as means of expression for Students, and has been a member of several organizations that provide support for the community. She has been a member of Levantine Cultural Center\u2019s national advisory board since 2007. In December 2010 she received the East-West Bridgebuilder Award, along with Jodie Evans and Roxana Saberi.<\/p>\n

ELIE KARAM<\/h4>\n

Elie Karam is an award-winning playwright, director and actor. Born in Beirut, he fled the Lebanese civil war to Vienna and Montreal to study Dramatic Arts. Relocating to post-war Beirut, he has written and directed critically acclaimed plays exposing important issues in the Middle East. His eclecticism has led him to write for French literary magazines, teach workshops at the University of Toronto, work in advertising for Grey Worldwide as well as exhibit art work in museums and create a hit Arab TV show. He\u2019s been invited as a resident author at the Royal Court Theatre in London and his plays have been performed at the Theatre du Rond-Point in Paris and La Mama in New York. His new play \u201cTell Me About the War So I\u2019ll Love You\u201d received the prestigious Beaumarchais literary grant, the Lyon Author award and has been published in France by Actes-Sud. It was produced at the world-renowned Avignon Theater Festival in 2010. Elie Karam divides his time between Beirut, Paris and Los Angeles. He served as the artistic consultant for Levantine Cultural Center programs based on his many years\u2019 experience in theatre, television and public events.<\/p>\n

DR MARK LEVINE<\/h4>\n

Mark LeVine<\/a>\u00a0a scholar, musician and activist with well over a decade of experience living and working in the Middle East, from Morocco to Iraq. As an guitarist and \u2018oudist he has worked with Mick Jagger, Ozomatli, world music artist Hassan Hakmoun and blues and jazz greats Dr. John and Johnny Copeland. As an activist he has worked with various groups within the global peace and justice movement and spoken at some of its seminal gatherings, such as the Prague S26 Countersummit against the IMF in 2000. As a journalist he has written widely in the US and European press, including Le Monde, the Christian Science Monitor, Middle East Report, and Asia Times. As a scholar he has held positions at the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University, the Society for Humanities at Cornell University, and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. LeVine is presently Associate Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture and Islamic Studies at the University of California, Irvine. His other books include\u00a0Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation<\/em>\u00a0(co-editor, Perceval Press, 2003),\u00a0Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine<\/em>(University of California Press, 2004) and\u00a0Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies: Reconstructing Muslim Public Spheres<\/em>, (co-editor, Palgrave Press, 2005).Two of his most recent books are\u00a0Why They Don\u2019t Hate Us, Unveiling the Axis of Evil\u00a0<\/em>(One World 2005) and\u00a0Heavy Metal Islam, Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam<\/em><\/a>, Random House (July 2008).\u00a0Read an interview with LeVine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DR DIANE SHAMMAS<\/h4>\n

Diane Shammas received her PhD in international and intercultural education from the University of Southern California. Her regional focus is on MENA while her research centers around ethno-religious and transnational identity, interethnic and interfaith relations, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans post-9\/11 and the diaspora in US and Europe, indigeneity, settler colonialism, and comparative analysis of African American and Palestinian liberatory struggles.<\/p>\n

ROWAN STORM<\/h4>\n

With more than 30 years’ experience with cultures and drumming of the Middle East and Mediterranean, Rowan Storm is recognized internationally as a performer, educator and frame drum designer. Rowan is pioneering the symmetrical frame drum playing position with her most recent design, Remo\u2019s Thinline Frame Drum. The narrow frame and light weight enable both hands to engage equally in creative rhythmic expression, promoting balance between both brain hemispheres. Rowan\u2019s first signature drum is an updated version of the archetypal women\u2019s frame drum of Iran, the Rowan Storm Dayereh by Cooperman and by Remo.<\/p>\n

Based in Athens, Greece for many years, Rowan has collaborated with some of the greatest masters of Middle Eastern music, including Naser Musa, Soheil Kaspar, Souren Baronian, Ross Daly, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Sahba Motallebi and Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Rowan teaches frame drum workshops and performs in prestigious venues throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East, including Istanbul\u2019s Cemal Re\u015fit Rey Concert Hall, Ankara\u2019s Middle East Technical University, Greece\u2019s Epidavros Ancient Amphitheater, European Music Conservatories, New York\u2019s Lincoln Center, San Francisco\u2019s Asian Art Museum, Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).Visit her site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SUSANNA WHITMORE FR\u00c1NEK<\/h4>\n

Susanna Whitmore Fr\u00e1nek is a native of Los Angeles and a descendent of one of L.A.\u2019s Hispanic founding families whose roots go back to California\u2019s pre-mission days. She spent many years abroad, living and traveling extensively in both Mexico and Spain. An ongoing interest in Arabic music and culture led her to teach and perform Middle Eastern dance during her seven years in Spain, while she also pursued studies in Flamenco and North Africa dance forms. More recently she has made a point of attending the Middle East Music and Dance Camp in Mendocino each year.<\/p>\n

Upon her return to L.A. in the 80s, Susanna went to work for La Opini\u00f3n, L.A.\u2019s Spanish-language daily newspaper, where she expanded the portfolio of advertisers, served as a cultural liaison between corporate America and the Hispanic community, collaborated on various sales-related projects with the Los Angeles Times. Susanna also worked as VP of Sales at the Wave Community Newspapers, a group of weekly publications targeting Southern California\u2019s African American and Hispanic communities.<\/p>\n

Currently Susanna is a co-founder\/part owner of a multicultural market research boutique as Principal and SVP of Business Development where she has developed key relationships within major corporations and multicultural advertising agencies, selling Hispanic, Asian and African American consumer-related qualitative and quantitative research and consulting. She has also spearheaded documentary-style film production, complimenting studies on Hispanic urban youth, barbershop discussions with African American men, identity making among Hmong students, an expos\u00e9 on L.A.\u2019s Asian Indian community, and the growth of store-front Evangelical churches catering to Hispanic immigrants.<\/p>\n

Susanna graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies combining Spanish Literature, History and Anthropology. She is currently working on a Master\u2019s Degree in Cultural Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles. Her thesis topic is on the cultural movement evolving within the Middle Eastern music scene in Los Angeles, and the musicians that are using musical performance and collaboration to encourage intercultural exchange and understanding to promote a dialogue of co-existence and peace. Her goal is to make a documentary film to narrate this growing movement.<\/p>\n

JOYCE ZONANA<\/h4>\n

Joyce Zonana, born in Cairo and raised in New York City, earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College) in 2006, she taught for 15 years at the University of New Orleans, where she was also Director of Women\u2019s Studies. Several chapters from her new memoir,\u00a0Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile\u2019s Journey\u00a0<\/em>(Feminist Press 2008), have appeared in journals and books, including Meridians, International Sephardic Journal, Jewish Women\u2019s Literary Annual, and Becoming American: Personal Essays by First Generation Immigrant Women. Her scholarly articles, on feminist theory and 19th century British literature, have appeared in Hudson Review, Signs, Victorian Poetry, Tulsa Studies in Women\u2019s Literature, and Journal of Narrative Technique.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laila Al-Qatami has extensive experience in management and strategic communications for cultural organizations, non-profit associations, financial institutions, corporations, and governments. Currently, she is the Chief Communications Officer for Al Ahli… Continue reading International Board & Advisory Board<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[2165],"class_list":["post-199","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInternational Board & Advisory Board - The Markaz Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"International Board & Advisory Board\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Laila Al-Qatami has extensive experience in management and strategic communications for cultural organizations, non-profit associations, financial institutions, corporations, and governments. Currently, she is the Chief Communications Officer for Al Ahli… Continue reading International Board & Advisory Board\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Markaz Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-20T08:15:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-e1752999274685.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"636\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"28 minutes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"TMR\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/\",\"name\":\"International Board & Advisory Board - The Markaz Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-214x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-06T04:19:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-20T08:15:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-214x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/06\\\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-214x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/international-board-extraordinary-council\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"International Board & Advisory Board\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Markaz Review\",\"description\":\"Literature and Arts from the Center of the World\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Markaz Review\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/08\\\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/08\\\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg\",\"width\":473,\"height\":191,\"caption\":\"The Markaz Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"International Board & Advisory Board - The Markaz Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"International Board & Advisory Board","og_description":"Laila Al-Qatami has extensive experience in management and strategic communications for cultural organizations, non-profit associations, financial institutions, corporations, and governments. Currently, she is the Chief Communications Officer for Al Ahli… Continue reading International Board & Advisory Board","og_url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/","og_site_name":"The Markaz Review","article_modified_time":"2025-07-20T08:15:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":636,"url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-e1752999274685.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"28 minutes","Written by":"TMR"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/","name":"International Board & Advisory Board - The Markaz Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-214x300.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-06T04:19:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-20T08:15:45+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-214x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Laila-Al-Qatami-the-markaz-review-214x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/international-board-extraordinary-council\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"International Board & Advisory Board"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/","name":"The Markaz Review","description":"Literature and Arts from the Center of the World","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#organization","name":"The Markaz Review","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/cropped-New-2023-TMR-Logo-500-pix.jpg","width":473,"height":191,"caption":"The Markaz Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37810,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/199\/revisions\/37810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}