St Andrews Film Studies Departmental Speaker Series - Dr Wazhmah Osman

Department of Film Studies, St Andrews

Dr Wazhmah Osman will be discussing her book, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists.

The Department of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews is thrilled to welcome Dr Wazhmah Osman to discuss her new book, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists. Portrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. Wazhmah Osman places television at the heart of these public and politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential to bring about justice, national integration, and peace.Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of Afghan media producers and people from all sectors of society. In this moving work, Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of themselves, and the role of international interventions. Osman looks at the national and transnational impact of media companies like Tolo TV, Radio Television Afghanistan, and foreign media giants and funders like the British Broadcasting Corporation and USAID. By focusing on local cultural contestations, productions, and social movements, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars redirects the global dialogue about Afghanistan to Afghans and thereby challenges top-down narratives of humanitarian development.The event will include a presentation followed by a Q&A session. All are welcome! Author bioWazhmah Osman is a filmmaker and assistant professor in the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. She is the codirector of the critically acclaimed documentary Postcards from Tora Bora and the coauthor of Afghanistan: A Very Short Introduction.

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St Andrews Film Studies Departmental Speaker Series - Dr Wazhmah Osman

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St Andrews Film Studies Departmental Speaker Series - Dr Wazhmah Osman

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