Georgetown University in Qatar

Global Energy Cultures: How Energy Shapes Our Everyday Lives

Dale Hudson (Moderator)

Dale Hudson is an Associate Professor at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) in the Film and New Media Program and the MFA in Art and Media, digital curator for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, and coordinator of Films from the Gulf at the Middle East Studies Association Film Festival. His latest book is Reorienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet (Indiana UP, 2023) with Alia Yunis. He also co-leads the Elements Pod in the Anthropocene Research Kitchen, Division of Arts & Humanities, NYUAD.

Bassam Alasad

Bassam Alasad is a producer, of “Finding Oum Al Ghaith,” and PGA, and DAE member. Currently, he is working as the Managing Director of Creative Media Solutions. He has produced projects in the past 17 years. His latest project was “Born a King – 2019” and “Champions – 2021” as an executive producer, and he is currently producing the upcoming feature films “Montréal” and “Finding Oum Al Ghaith”. In 2014, he started his green production journey and later co-founded Greener Screen, a consultancy that aims to support the film industry to become carbon-neutral.  He heads the Amman Film Industry Days and Amman projects market at the Amman International Film Festival since 2021.

Abeer Bayazidi

Abeer Bayazidi is the Director of “Finding Oum Al Ghaith.” She has  more than 12 years of diversified experience in sustainability and corporate responsibility, covering all aspects of outreach, communication, training, and running broader environmental sustainability programs to public relations and advocacy to heighten awareness and influence perspective. She currently works as the Training and Content Director of Greener Screen, working with filmmakers, writers, and content creators to educate, advocate and showcase environmental sustainability and social justice causes.

Lakshmi Sharma

Lakshmi Sharma, a native of Madhopur chhata village, from the Sheohar district of Bihar, joined Khabar Lahariya in 2010 as a reporter. She went on to run the Bihar edition of the print newspaper before moving onto the production side of things in the Delhi newsroom, where she headed the production desk and became Senior Producer at KL in 2015. Since 2019-20, Lakshmi has moved up as core leadership at Chambal Media, KL’s mothership, where she currently leads the production of special features, including shorts, documentaries, podcasts, and animations. Through the years, Lakshmi has also garnered experience in the areas of  anchoring, editing, and in voice-over skills.

Srishti Mehra

Srishti is an experienced media and communications professional with over 8 years of experience in production, editing, and content strategy. She is currently the Communications Co-Lead at Khabar Lahariya, India’s only women-run digital rural news network, she previously worked as a producer with NDTV 24×7, India’s leading English broadcast news channel.

Suzi Mirgani

Suzi Mirgani is Assistant Director for Publications at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar. Her research lies at the intersection of politics and popular culture. She is author of Target Markets: International Terrorism Meets Global Capitalism in the Mall (Transcript Press, 2017), and her recent publications include: “Peeking behind the Curtain: Gulf Filmmakers Imagine the Lives of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the Arabian Peninsula,” in Reorienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet, eds. Dale Hudson and Alia Yunis (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2023). As a complement to her academic work, Mirgani is an independent filmmaker, highlighting stories from the Arab world.