DR. MAYTHA ALHASSEN
"I don’t really know what I am, you know, politically speaking. I don’t consider myself to be a leader. I consider myself to be a kind of witness I suppose. I don’t know. But my weapon, no my tool, is my typewriter, my pen.”
-James Baldwin*
maytha alhassen, Ph.D. as an engaged wit/h/ness draws her training from academia, journalism, MOVement work, art and mending practices. Her work bridges the worlds of organizing, academic research, media engagement, artistic expression and spiritually-guided healing practices.
Her newest horizon has been in TV/film writing, producing, and consulting. For those inquiries, please reach out to her team:
Chervine Naamani
cnaamani@rainla.com
ABOUT
Maytha Alhassen is a Writer/PRoducer, journalist, professor and a pop Culture collaborative senior fellow (authoring the HAQQ AND HOLLYWOOD: ILLUMINATING 100 YEARS OF MUSLIM TROPES AND HOW TO TRANSFORM THEM report) Who appeared as a CO-HOST on the Young Turks’ “main hour” + as a guest co-host and digital producer on Al Jazeera English’s “The Stream.” Alhassen is a Co-Executive producer, writer, and social impact advisor for Hulu’s award-winning series “Ramy,” a havard religion and public life fellow in Art + Pop Culture, executive Producer of the docu-series “American Muslims: A history revealed,” a pillars muslim narrative change fellow, a USC 2022-23 Civic Media Fellow, host of new educational web series "Key terms” (part of “Office hours” series), Co-Host of Amazon Music and salt audio meditation podcast BECOME, and a former Ted resident (2017).
In 2012, Alhassen co-edited the collection Demanding Dignity: Young Voices from the Front Lines of the Arab Revolutions. Alhassen has also written for CNN, boston review, Huffington Post, Los ANgeles Review of Books, the baffler, Mic and Counterpunch. Alhassen has appeared on CNN, HuffPost Live, Fusion Network, and WNYC's “The Brian Lehrer Show.” In 2019-2020, alhassen served as a visiting assistant professor of Peace and international studies at chapman university and an associate professor teaching graduate courses in social justice and Community organizing at prescott college. as a social justice organizer, alhasssen helped to launch abolitionist organizations and collectives like the Social Justice institute at occidental college, Muslim anti-racism collective, Believers Bail Out, and Arabs for Black Lives.
alhassen received her ph.d. and m.a. from Usc in American Studies + Ethnicity, A b.A. in political science and Arabic + Islamic studies from UCLA in 2004 and a m.a. in anthropology from Columbia University in 2008. While at Columbia, Alhassen conducted research for the university's Malcolm X Project and facilitated arts-based workshops with incarcerated youth at rikers island through blackout arts collective. Alhassen has decades of experience in education, arts-based social justice organizing, media/journalism, global travel and healing practices (Yoga, Reiki, doula + meditation) and poetry writing and performance.
EDUCATOR
professor | researcher
Maytha Alhassen received her Ph.D. in American Studies + Ethnicity from University of Southern California in December 2017. She studies cultural histories, social movements + friendships, race + ethnicity, social justice + the arts, travel, global flows, critical migration studies, women + gender, sacred femininities, media studies, Afro-Arab “solidarity politics,” Malcolm X, global south, food justice, + indigenous spiritual healing technologies + practices.
in 2012, alhassen co-edited a volume of stories by youth organizers and activists involved in the arab uprisings demanding dignity: young voices from the front lines of the arab revolutions. fall 2017, alhassen was awarded a pop Culture Collaborative senior fellowship geared towards studying + shifting Muslim narratives. As a Senior Fellow, Alhassen authored the report Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 Years of Muslim Tropes and How to Transform Them (october 2018), documenting the cinematic history of depicting Muslims, political drivers fueling the narratives, the effects on public opinion, brilliant Muslim creatives, interviews + recommendations for the entertainment industry, philanthropy, media + social justice organizers.
In her capacity as an educator, she lectures nationally across college campuses on the history of the silver and small screen's portrayal of Arabs and Muslims, tying pop culture representations of these communities to prevailing political narratives + U.S. foreign policy in the respective regions. alhassen's speaking gigs + moderated conversations have taken her to universities, conferences, and community centers in the South Africa, UK (England, Wales, and Scotland), Germany, Mexico, Lebanon, France, Poland, Egypt, Canada, Portugal, Greece, Kosovo, + Bahamian waters (Summit at Sea).
While a doctoral student at USC, Alhassen assisted in the launch of the Middle East Studies Program (now a department). This Fall, Alhassen began teaching for Prescott College’s M.A. in Social Justice + Community Organizing + will be instructing graduate students within Chapman University’s international studies program. Currently, alhassen serves as a member on the editorial board of the electronic version of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion + a review chair for the national women’s studies association’s 2019 conference.
Alhassen received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Arabic + Islamic studies from the University of California, Los angeles (UCLA) in 2004 + her master’s degree in Anthropology from Columbia University in 2008. She has taught undergrads and Grad students n Peace Studies and International Studies at Chapman, Social Justice and Community Organizing at Prescott College, and is currently reaching art and Pop Culture in Religion and Public life at Harvard university.
HOLISTIC PRACTICIONER
Somewhat of a "freedom doula," alhassen has spent decades serving the elevation + liberation of spirit through journalism, academia, art, social justice organizing + healing worlds. in addition to her academic training, alhassen explores a multi-dimensional path towards inner liberation (authentic self-revealing) nourished by training in trauma-informed yoga + meditation (a somatics approach), social justice-infused yoga (Off the Mat, Into the World training), doula, + reiki.
alhassen has been invited by organizations, schools, communities and companies to facilitate holistic healing convenings (including women and sacred femme circles and trauma-informed yoga and meditation workshops) for Summit, FWD.US, Harness, USC, Mama's Glow, Brandless, and Daughters of The Doorway.
If you desire a deep connection to the freedom that lives inside of you within a world designed to systematically limit and oppress your very being, alhassen can work with you and/or your organization to unlock the inner truths of spirit and navigate the realm of the flesh.
TO BOOK MAYTHA FOR HEALING WORK CLICK HERE.
TELEVISION
TELEVISION
writer/producer | host | consultant
Alhassen began her work in tv/film as a consultant on evertying from major studio projects to independent films and documentaries. she became a creative advisor for season 1 of hulu’s award-winning scripted series “Ramy,” then was promoted to staff writer for season 2 of the series, and now assumed the posiiton of Co-Executive Producer for season 3.
As a commentator, alhassen has been featured on CNN, BET (finding justice), Al Jazeera, NPR’s 1A, Fusion, HuffPost Live, Splinter, The Young Turks, NPR, CBC, Pivot, ATTN, WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show," Power106 (Knowledge is Power), Splinter, Newsy + KPFK. She appears regularly as a guest co-host on The Young Turk's main hour and for years worked as a guest co-host and digital producer at Al Jazeera English's current-events program "The Stream." Previously, Alhassen co-hosted an Arab-American TV variety show on ART called What's Happening. Her work has been profiled by Vanity Fair, The Nation, Slate, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Vox, Deadline, The Root, The Intercept, Teen Vogue, Colorlines, Social Text + featured in a number of academic articles + books.
She has been consulting and developing social impact strategies for documentaries, major studio films and TV shows. TO work with alhassen on entertainment and media related consulting (including social justice training for media companies and campaigns), please message Dr. Maytha via the sawaha page, Rates and service lists will be customized per project.
ACTIVIST
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ARTIST
SOCIAL JUSTICE ARTIST WORK
As both artist and organizer, alhassen performed and wrote for internationally touring play "Hijabi Monologues" (composed of lived experiences scribed by Muslim women) and worked with arts-based social justice organization Blackout Arts Collective. As a member of the collective, she facilitated creative literacy workshops with incarcerated youth at Rikers Island, assisted in organizing a Hip Hop Film Festival in the prison's high school and wrote an introduction on the role of love in dismantling the prison industrial complex for an anthology of the youth's poetry and visual art titled One Mic. As a poet, actress, and speaker Alhassen has performed at the Kennedy Center, Shrine Auditorium, in a Sundance film, on the TED stage, at South by Southwest in 2010, 2012, + 2019, + at many universities.
In 2015, alhassen established + designed the Social Justice Institute in collaboration with the Office of Student Affairs at Occidental College to train fellows in social justice praxis. Previously, maytha served as a 2014 core steering committee member of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC), involved in MuslimARC's early digital organizing campaigns addressing racism in the Muslim American community. A year later, alhassen joined a group of Arab diasporic peoples to form Arabs for Black Power, a collective committed to solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) that emerged in response to the M4BL platform in 2016. Alhassen returned to the Muslim American social justice space + prison abolition organizing work in 2018, leading a campaign with three other Muslim women scholars to activate the Muslim community around ending mass incarceration and money bail called Believers Bail Out. The initiative was profiled by Chicago Tribune + Teen Vogue. In the wake of the brtual murder of george floyd, she and a group of organizers formed Arabs for Black Lives.
For the last 4 years, alhassen has worked with refugee populations from Turkey to Greece as a journalist, translator a+ healer. In October 2017, alhassen piloted her "Yoga to the Displaced People" program---a trauma-informed yoga intervention geared towards displaced + marginalized peoples---with a population of refugee women in Greece. More recently, alhassen completed a TED residency that culminated in a performance of a poem she wrote for her ancestral homeland of Syria + in order to speak to the limited frameworks we use to understand this crisis of seeking refuge. In a departure from standard TED talk structure, A Poem for Syria: Beyond on a Geography of Violence, was born out of a desire to deracinate popular narrative scripts that imagine Syria as a "geography of violence." Other poems emerging from her work in refugee camps and with displaced peoples ("Camps Concentrated in the American Imaginary") have been published in the literary journal Red Ink.