Contributors

Leigh Held is a graduate of the Boston University College of Communication. During her time in Boston she worked as a nighthawk on the Boston Globe’s sports desk and for CFO magazine. She began writing her first novel as a senior in college, and is now working on the second. Currently, she freelances her work can be also be found at www.buzzine.com. 

Lisa Guáqueta studied economics at Universidad Externado de Colombia and holds a master's degree in international affairs from The New School. Her interests include the urban dynamics of Latin America, especially the role of cities and local governments in international issues. She is both fascinated by and fearful of boarded up windows and doors, and, for some strange reason, takes many photos of abandonded industrial structures.

M. Junaid Levesque-Alam, a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, lives in New York. He has been published in several outlets, including Altmuslim.com, Antiwar.com, and The Nation's website. He writes about America and Islam on his website, Crossing the Crescent.

Marianna Gurtovnik's interests lie in foreign policy, international security, and energy security. She has written on these topics for World Politics Review, Transitions Online, and the Congressionally-funded Project on National Security Reform (PNSR). For PNSR, she completed research studies on the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. Government's response to the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) and the Suez Canal Crisis (1956). She holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from American University in Washington, DC.

Marie holds a B.A. in International Relations from Drake University and a M.A. in Political Science from the New School for Social Research. While in New York, she was a Women in International Leadership Fellow at International House and a student fellow at the India China Institute. She taught in China and did field work in India on “development projects, human displacement, and the U.N. Global Compact.”

Martin Searle graduated with a B.A. in European Social and Political Studies from University College London. He subsequently worked for an international risk management company, and then on a campaign for the European Election held in 2009. He is now a graduate student of International Affairs at the New School.

Matthew Young is a DJ, artist, and designer. Spinning records since 1993, he is an avid collector of soulful music from around the globe. With DJ sets ranging from house music in Washington, DC to reggae in Shanghai, he is currently active in the nightlife scene in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Matthew is called Chewie by his mates, DJ Chew Rocks by clubgoers, and Madhav by his in-laws.

Max Weintraub received his Ph.D. in the History of Art from Bryn Mawr College in 2006, where he completed his dissertation on the art of Bruce Nauman. Max has worked in curatorial and educational departments at the Denver Art Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. From 2006-08 he was the curator of The Reis Collection of Modern & Contemporary Art in New York City.

Michael J. Jordan is a Lesotho-based foreign correspondent who has reported from two dozen countries over the past 17 years. He is a long-time correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor -- serving as the Monitor's correspondent in Budapest, at the United Nations, and Bratislava -- and also writes for Foreign Policy, Harvard's Nieman Reports, and many others. In addition to reporting, Michael is a three-time Visiting Scholar at Hong Kong Baptist University in its International Journalism program. He has also taught at the University of Sts.

Minal Bopaiah is a media consultant and founder of Brevity & Wit (www.brevityandwit.com), which specializes in developing media strategies for social enterprises. You can follow her on Twitter @mbopaiah or contact her at minal(at)brevityandwit.com.

Natalia Cardona is Advocacy Coordinator for Social Watch, a South based network of more than 250 civil society organizations located around the globe, which works to hold governments accountable for the commitments they have made to reduce poverty and increase gender equality. She recently traveled to Uruguay.

Drill Sergeant. Loving. Intelligent. Goofy. Weird Faces.

If my former students could describe me in five words, one of those adjectives would be listed. My work involves and array of interests including political socialization, peace education, yoga studies and dance/choreography/photography. In the future, I hope to work for Sesame Street, Alvin Ailey and have my own organization for young, creative women to build their careers in dance and theater.

Born in 1989 in Tehran, Iran, Obaash started his first band at the age of 15, covering punk songs by Iggy Pop, The Stooges, Misfits, and Rancid. In 2007, he joined the Yellow Dogs, a band that was instrumental in building an underground rock scene in Tehran. Three years later the Yellow Dogs played their first legal show… in Istanbul, Turkey. Since then they have traveled the United States and were featured in the documentary No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009). http://www.myspace.com/theyellowdogsband / http://www.theyellowdogsband.com/

Omar Abdullah al-Fotihi was born and raised in Sana’a, Yemen. He spent his senior year of high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. before returning to work in Yemen for two years. He is currently studying peace and global studies at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

Padmini Narumanchi has been an educator in New York City since 2002, and has most recently taught documentary filmmaking to teens in Brooklyn. She is interested in the intersection of global environmental sustainability, psychology, gender and ethnicity in film. She is a writer, photographer and film lover. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley (B.A., Film Studies), the University of Southern California (M.F.A., Film and Video Production) and Long Island University (M.S. Ed, Secondary Education).

Patrick Nolan Guyer is a statistician with the American Human Development Project at the Social Science Research Council in Brooklyn, NY. Patrick holds a BA in Political Science from McGill University and an MA in International Affairs from the New School. He has researched and written on human development and human rights in various contexts and also counts among his interests the study of languages, electoral politics throughout the Americas, and strategies for sustainable marine resource management. He also dances, quite badly, but with much gusto.

Rob Grace writes for the Foreign Policy Association's Law and Security Strategy blog. He is also an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced around the globe.

Sahar Sarshar is a video journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Washington, DC. She received her Master’s in Film and Video from Emerson College in Boston. Writing in Motion: A Nation Divided is her first full-length documentary. Sahar's works are mostly short form documentaries and video stories, which she produces for Voice of America. Although born in Texas, Sahar has spent her pinnacle years living in Iran and the UK. Her experiences there and also traveling to many other countries influenced her scope of the world.

Sarah D. Schulman is the graphic artist-in-residence for The Mantle. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an MA in Media Studies from The New School. In addition to graphic design, she works as a freelance digital video editor. Sarah likes knitting and comic books, and can be reached at sarah@mantlethought.org.

Savita Pawnday works at the Global Centre for the Responibility to Protect. Prior to joining the Global Centre, she was a research associate at the Program on States and Security at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies. Savita has worked in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi with Catholic Relief Services, in New York with Trickle Up, a microfinance NGO, and in India at Akanksha. She holds a M.A. from Fordham University in political economy and development, with a specialization in political economy of civil wars and a B.A. in Economics from St.

Sehba Sarwar is a multidisciplinary artist whose prose, poetry, video, and performance art tackle race, class and gender issues. Born and raised in a home filled with artists, educators and activists in Karachi, Pakistan, she learned at a young age to speak out against inequity. Over the last decade, Sarwar‘s writings have appeared in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines in India, Pakistan, and the U.S. Her work explores women’s issues at a global level and straddles two continents, moving between South Asia and the United States.

Born in Ethiopia and current resident of Brooklyn, NY, Sheba is a singer, songwriter, producer, and founder of the independent record label (S)onic Dynasty. Her album, “The Lion of Sheba,” an amalgam of urban, African, dancehall, and reggae music, will be released in early 2011. For more on Sheba, visit http://www.therealsheba.com/.

Skye Dobson is founder and director of The Wembly Fund, a non-profit that supports grassroots child-welfare initiatives in Africa. She also serves on the board of African Children's Haven, where she is heavily involved in the organization’s East Africa programs. Skye is in the final semester of a Master's degree in International Affairs at the New School and serves as president of the school’s Project Africa organization.

Stephanie Lim is a writer and photographer without a fixed address. She received her B.A. in journalism from San Francisco State University and her M.S. in urban planning from Columbia University.

Todd Lester is currently the Executive Director of Global Arts Corps, an organization that creates theatre to advance reconciliation in societies emerging from violent conflict. Previously, he founded freeDimensional, an organization that supports activists and artists-in-distress by providing safe haven in artist residencies.

Vicente Garcia Groyon has published a novel, The Sky over Dimas (De La Salle University Press, 2003), and a collection of short stories, On Cursed Ground and Other Stories (University of the Philippines Press, 2004), as well as edited anthologies of Philippine short fiction. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from De La Salle University-Manila, where he teaches while completing a PhD in Literature.

William Harvey, the founder and executive director of Cultures in Harmony, has recently been named the Violin and Viola Teacher for the Ministry of Education in Kabul, Afghanistan, a post he will hold concurrently with his position with CiH. He will teach at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Since 2005, he has led 16 Cultures in Harmony projects in 11 countries.