Mona Damluji writes, studies and teaches about oil culture, cinema history and the Middle East as assistant professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara. She also loves writing for children and the adults who read to them.
Mona is a curator of exhibits and film series that feature path-breaking international filmmakers, photographers, illustrators and visual artists in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. She is a co-producer of the Peabody and Emmy-nominated web series The Secret Life of Muslims and a consulting producer for the Oscar short-listed film Stranger at the Gate.
Mona is currently writing a book about the nexus of oil and film industries in Iraq titled Pipeline Cinema. Her writing has been published previously in Jadaliyya, Urban History, Arab Studies Journal, Media Fields, Middle East Insights, International Journal of Islamic Architecture, International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, AMCA, Middle East in London, Abadan Times and elsewhere. She serves on the editorial board of the open access journal Media + Environment.