Ahlam Muhtaseb
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Bio
Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb is a professor of media studies and the graduate coordinator of the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). She has an M.A. in Journalism and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. She is the recipient of the 2024 Women Support Organization’s Distinguished Woman of the Year award. She is also the recipient of the 2020 CSUSB Outstanding Scholarship, Research and Creative Activities Award and the 2019-20 Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Faculty Mentor Awardees. She also won the 2019 Rebuilding Alliance “Story Teller” Award. Her research interests include digital communication, digital resistance & decolonization, social justice, and diasporic communities. She is working currently on a study of Palestinian digital resistance and decolonizing digital spaces. Her research has appeared in national and international publications, such as the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and Arab Studies Quarterly, and has been presented at national and international conferences. Her documentary 1948: Creation & Catastrophe was screened at over 20 film festivals and at universities and community organizations throughout the world. She co-produced and co-directed the film that focuses on the year 1948 and its catastrophic consequences for the Palestinian nation which has originated from her field work in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. The film won the Jerusalem International Film Festival’s 2019 Special Jury Award in the Feature Documentary category. She was the producer and lead researcher of the documentary 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime which centered the three young Muslims murdered in Chapel Hill in 2015 in its discussion of the state of hate crimes, Islamophobia and racism in the United States. The film had its global premier at the Doc NYC Film Festival in November of 2023 and won the Subject Matter Grant for Audience Outreach and Impact Efforts, in addition to the 2024 Swedish Academy Award for Best Documentary Film and the Dubai International Cine Carnival 2024 Award.
Education
Ahlam Muhtaseb earned her doctorate in Mass Communication (2003) from the University of Memphis. Her Master degree was in Journalism/Public Relations.
Specialization
Digital media & social movements online, narrative theory, critical approaches, postcolonial theory.
Research and Teaching Interests
She teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in public relations and media studies, including Introduction to Public Relations; Public Relations in Communication; Issues Management; Crisis Communication; Strategic Public Relations; Gender, Race, & Media; International Communication; and Digital Culture. Her research interests are digital media, social justice, social movements, and narrative theory.