Alia Yunis

Alia Yunis is a screenwriter, script analyst and filmmaker whose work and writing focus on memory and heritage, gaining recognition internationally, including for her feature documentary The Golden Harvest and novel The Night Counter.

Idriss Jebari

Idriss Jebari is an academic who has published on the intellectual projects of several North African intellectual figures and on the theory and practice of Arab intellectual engagements in public affairs. He is involved in a number of initiatives with the Arab Council for Social Sciences.

Alia Al-Senussi

Alia Al-Senussi is a cultural strategist, writer, public speaker, academic and patron of the arts in the region. Her work is focused on social change and the role of the arts in creating a shift, and has advanced various models of arts patronage in disparate areas and political systems.

Nour Daher

Nour Daher is research and media curator at afikra and teaches fashion at Creative Space Beirut. As an artist, she works with printmaking, textiles, and poetry to explore how memory and spirituality inhabit the material world, tracing the politics of land and rituals of resistance.

Mahmoud Talaat

Mahmoud Talaat is an Egyptian visual artist whose practice explores identity, roots, memory, and the fabric of the city, blending painting and photography, and intertwining the conceptual, ambiguous, and explicit.

Farida Youssef

Farida Youssef is a curator based in Cairo and a research fellow at the British Museum. Her research sought the inclusion of a local perspective on the Modern Egypt collection. She is interested in the value of spatial theory for artistic inquiries.

Ali Karimi

Ali Karimi is an architect whose work explores public space, ecology, and the extractive landscapes of the region. He is the co-founder of Civil Architecture in Manama and Kuwait City and has co-curated the Kuwait Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Teymur Faris

Teymur Faris is a writer and film director born in Barcelona. He is the son of legendary photographer, artist and intellect, the late Waddah Faris, whose archive Teymur and his brother have been working to digitize.

Khalid Albaih

Khalid Albaih is one of the most prolific political cartoonists in the world, publishing one artwork a day for the last 20 years. A confluence of journalism and art, his work comments on subjects such as immigration, race, power, conflict, and identity.

Brahim “Snoopy” Ahmed

Brahim "Snoopy" Ahmed is a film director and producer born in Beirut and hailing from Khartoum, who is behind In Deep Visions Productions. His documentary work has garnered numerous awards and accolades and he has contributed to award-winning films.

Jade George

Jade George is the director of media at afikra and founder of The Carton magazine. Born in Beirut and currently living in Athens, her writings and projects for the last 20 years have focused on food culture along the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

Rafram Chaddad

Rafram Chaddad is an artist based in Tunis whose photographs, films, and multi-media installations rethink the archive, migration narratives, and what it means to belong. His work reflects on his personal life experiences and comments on broader socio-political issues.

Rabab Chamseddine

Rabab Chamseddine is a Lebanese poet and photographer based between Beirut and Tyre, recipient of the 2025 AFAC’s ADPP grant. Her work explores belonging to the land and the intertwining of loss and love under colonial threat in South Lebanon.

Nadi Abusaada

Nadi Abusaada is a Jerusalem-born architect and historian, currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Design at AUB. His work focuses on the material histories and visual cultures of the modern Arab world, and he has edited several books.

Ziad Jamaleddine

Ziad Jamaleddine is co-founder of L.E.FT Architects and teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. His research and practice focus on mosque architecture and have been recognized internationally.

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès

Dr. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the founding director of Khatt Foundation and the author of many books. She specializes in multilingual typographic research and design and has taught and lectured on typography and graphic design internationally.

Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi

Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is an Emirati educator, art collector, scholar, columnist and member of the ruling family of Sharjah. He founded Barjeel Art Foundation, an organization dedicated to art of North Africa and West Asia based in Sharjah.

Mazen Kerbaj

Mazen Kerbaj is a celebrated comics author, visual artist and musician from Beirut, living in Berlin. He is one of the initiators and key players of the Lebanese experimental music scene where he co-founded Irtijal festival and Al Maslakh label.

Mikey Muhanna

Mikey Muhanna is the founder and executive director of afikra. He works at the intersection of culture, education, and innovation, helping institutions and audiences across the Arab world communicate more meaningfully, and build programs, content, and communities that matter.