Saturday, 11 January 2025, marks the start of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies’ sixth International Winter School program, which will address the theme of “Media in Wartime”.
This year’s program was selected in light of Israel's genocide in Gaza, during which Western mainstream media coverage has aligned with the perpetrators. This coverage has underscored the alarming ease with which Palestinians are dehumanized and depersonalized. The 2025 Winter School will critically explore the interaction between media and war, focusing on how conflicts and the media mutually influence one another, and examining how war coverage is shaped by ideological and cultural biases.
Over six days, this school will bring together scholars and researchers from across the globe to analyse how ideological and cultural prejudices shape war narratives. It will also delve into the role of media in framing conflicts, reinforcing systemic injustices, and navigating the dynamics of censorship and misinformation.
The 2025 Winter School will include five public lectures, a roundtable, and a workshop, delivered by renowned and specialized scholars in the study of media. Des Freedman (Goldsmiths University of London), Dina Matar (SOAS University of London), Zahera Harb (City University of London), Walid Al-Saqaf (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies), and Tiziano Bonini (University of Siena).
The program also features closed sessions, where 20 PhD students and researchers will present their research projects covering a wide range of case studies from regions and war zones, including Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Central Asia, the Balkans, and Mexico. These papers explore topics such as embedded journalism, cultural biases in media coverage, and social media and censorship. They utilize diverse methodologies such as computational analysis, discourse analysis, and thematic analysis.
* For more information, please see the Winter School public lectures and roundtables timetable and Booklet.
