Rania Masri
Channel: Kanka Kanak
Date: 08/08/2021

Rania Masri, is a political ecologist, environmental justice activist, and the regional coordinator for the Academic Activist Co-Produced Knowledge for Environmental Justice (acknowlej.org and ejatlas.org). Rania has served as an environmental science professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Balamand in Lebanon(2005-2014), the Environment and Energy Policy Specialist as the UNDP-Regional Office in Cairo (2012-2013),  and Director of the Southern Peace Research and Education Center at the Institute for Southern Studies in North Carolina (in the US).  

Most recently, she concluded her tenure as the Associate Director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut.  Rania holds a PhD in Forestry from North Carolina State University (2001), and a Masters in Environmental Management (MEM) from Duke University (1995). Throughout her career, she has worked to bring a holistic, interdisciplinary lens to the environmental sciences, and a recognition that environmental management must encompass a human rights and social justice practice and is, in itself, a struggle for full citizenship.

Her writings have centered on issues of ecological sustainability, environmental politics, and social movements. She has also written and organized extensively against the sanctions on Iraq and the occupation of (all) Palestine, as well as civil and environmental rights. With regards to communication specifically, Rania has presented at hundreds of speaking engagements at universities and research centers around the world, and has more than twenty years experience speaking to the press across various media platforms. She also has designed and offered intensive public speaking workshops, and she developed a Speech Writing course for LAU.

Select Publications & Book Chapters:

“Assault on Iraq’s Environment: Radioactive Waste and Disease–The effects of depleted uranium weaponry and blockade.” Iraq: Its History, People and Politics. Ed. by Shams Inati. Prometheus Books. 2003
“Iraq: Reconstruction or Deconstruction?” Iraq-a Liberated Country?" (Der Irak – ein befreites Land?) Edited by Michael Schiffmann, Rüdiger Göbel, and Joachim Guilliard. Papyrossa Verlag (Germany). 
Abunimah, Ali and Rania Masri. “The Media’s Deadly Spin on Iraq.” Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War. Ed. by Anthony Arnove. South End Press. Co-Published by Pluto Press in London. 2000. Second Edition – 2002
“The Al-Aqsa Intifada: A natural consequence of the military occupation, the Oslo accords, and the ‘peace process.’" The Struggle for Palestine. Ed. by Lance Selfa. Haymarket Books. 2002

Song "Yedjudjima" composed and performed by Toka Era.