Interview with  Mona Damluji, Associate Dean and Director of The Markaz: Resource Center at Stanford University.    She is a liberal arts educator, cultural activist and scholar with expertise in the Arab Middle East and broader Muslim World. Mona received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and was the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian & Islamic Visual Culture at Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Mona regularly curates and organizes exhibits and programs featuring the work of artists and activists linked to Muslim and Arab communities and countries. Major recent projects have included "Open Shutters Iraq" at UC Berkeley and "Arab Comics: 90 Years of Popular Visual Culture" at Brown University. Mona has worked as the educational outreach director for the Arab Film Festival, organizing an annual festival screening for students and teachers in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. Her exhibition and book reviews appear in Jadaliyya, AMCA and the International Journal of Islamic Architecture. Mona's publications also appear in the Journal of Urban History, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Subterranean Estates: the Life Worlds of Oil and Gas.
Mona will be speaking at Stanford on Feb 3, 2016 about "Baghdad's Deep Dilemma: Sectarianism and Urban Segregation under Occupation."  Her talk will discuss the sectarian-based segregation that has shaped urbanism in Baghdad is a direct outcome of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. The "post"-occupied city is characterized by the normalization of concrete “security” blast-walls that choke urban circulation and sever communities. The notorious blast walls -- or "Bremer Walls" -- perpetuate and intensify conditions of urban segregation. As the summer's surge of anti-government protests in Baghdad demonstrate, the short-sighted nature of this militarized solution to sectarian-based violence has proven to be a superficial and unsustainable fix to the deep dilemma of sectarian segregation codified in Iraq’s political system. This presentation will examine the context for recent public dissent on the streets of Baghdad through the story of the capital city's fragmentation between 2006 and 2007. 

Interview with Mona Damluji,  Associate Dean + Director of the Markaz Resource Center at Stanford.

College is an always exciting, but sometimes stressful, time. What's the experience like for Muslim students? What can universities do to address their needs? And what should students be doing on their own? Listen to our conversation with Osama El-Gabalawy and Ameena Tawakol, Stanford students, and Mona Damluji, director of Stanford's new Markaz Resource Center, about how Stanford's tackling this issue. 

Photo Credit: Stanford University.
Music credit: Gillicuddy, Bending the Reed.

Muslim Student Life

Recorded in October 2016
Interview with Anita Husen, the new Associate Dean for Student Affairs + Director of the Markaz Resource Center at Stanford University.
In this interview, Anita talks about current and future events at the Markaz (including the Emel Mathlouthi Concert), her diverse background, and the impressive array of experiences which she brings with her to Stanford.

Interview with Anita Husen, New Director of the Markaz Resource Center at Stanford (2016)

Featuring the voices of visionary student leaders, this immersive sound story tells the origin of the Markaz Resource Center at Stanford. Hear how a handful of Muslim students came together in 2012 to create an inclusive community space for learning, healing and growing. 

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This sound story was created by Markaz historian Parsa Nowruzi with help from Markaz interns, Arman Kassam, Abdu Mohamdy, and Omar Escoto.  This project was further supported by the time and talents of Stanford Storytelling Project's Jenny March and Allie Wollner and Stanford University Archives' Daniel Hartwig. Thank you to our wonderful storytellers, Subhan Ali, Mahta Baghoolizadeh, Osama El-Gabalawy, Omar Shakir, Zainab Taymuree, and Lydia Zemmali.

Music is from filmmusic.io by Kevin MacLeod and sound effects from freesound.org.

The Origin of the Markaz

We've reached the seventh episode! This is the last interview we were able to conduct before COVID-19 hit. It features Sameer, a freshman from Fremont who dives into the samosa as a bridge between linguistic, national, and personal divides.

Music from the Free Music Archive (The Underscore Orkestra, Lobo Loco,  and Podington Bear).

Sameer - Samosas

As-salāmu Alaykum! Welcome to the Markaz at Stanford. We support a vibrant community of students who identify with or are interested in Muslim experiences both here and around the world.

Sameer - Samosas

The Markaz Resource Center

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