Author and media critic Jack Shaheen has watched over 1,000 films from the last century to see how Middle Eastern characters fare.  Not so well.  More often than not, the silver screen resorts to demeaning Arab stereotypes.  Hanadi Al-Samman (University of Virginia) studies contemporary Arabic literature and culture and joins the conversation.  Also featured:  Iraq once had one of the most advanced higher education systems in the Middle East, but Karim Altaii (James Madison University) says that system has been destroyed by the assassination of professors, bombs, looting, and neglect.  Altaii is currently in Iraq working on capacity building – especially in higher education.

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