The Iraqi city of Fallujah has become an epicenter of geopolitical conflict, where foreign powers and non-state actors have repeatedly waged war in residential neighborhoods with staggering humanitarian consequences. The impact of this event will be explored with a screening of the award-winning animated film Le Parfum d’Irak and a community discussion of the aftermath of the siege of Fallujah.
Panelists will include Le Parfum d’Irak director Feurat Alani; anthropologist Kali Rubaii, author of “Counterinsurgency and the Ethical Life of Material Things in Iraq’s Anbar Province;” and U.S. Marine veteran and scholar Ross Caputi, who earned the Graduate Student Leadership Award at Fitchburg State when he completed his master’s degree in 2016. Caputi, now in a PhD program, is author of the book The Sacking of Fallujah: A People’s History.
The program is hosted by the English Studies Department and co-sponsored by the Center for Conflict Studies. It is presented in collaboration with the College of Humanities & Fine Arts at UMass Amherst.