Farrah Hassen is the 2008 Carol Jean and Edward F. Newman Fellow. Her projects include working on a film about the history of IPS, expanding her master’s thesis on “Syria and the Iraq War,” and publishing articles on U.S.-Syria relations, U.S. policy in the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East peace process. She is the co-author (with Phyllis Bennis) of the chapter, “U.S. Policy Toward the Middle East: Elevating Peace By Resolving Crises,” featured in the book, Mandate for Change: Policies and Leadership for 2009 and Beyond.

Born in the UAE, raised in the USA, Farrah holds a Master’s in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2007. She received her BA in Political Science at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she was honored as the “Outstanding Political Science Graduate” of 2004. She served as IPS Fellow Saul Landau’s research assistant from 2001-2004 and interned for the Institute’s Global Economy project in 2002. Farrah received the Institute’s Seymour Melman Fellowship in 2005, which allowed her to travel to Syria and research US-Syrian relations, Syrian foreign policy, and the nascent reform process.

Farrah interned at the UNDP office in Damascus in 2004, worked as Harry Belafonte’s executive assistant in New York, and served as the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) Southern California organizer in 2005. She also worked as a research assistant at the National Security Archive in Washington D.C., documenting the lead-up, entry, and conduct of the 2003 war in Iraq by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to access key documents. Farrah’s numerous political commentaries, movie and book reviews and poetic attempts have appeared in publications including The Chicago Tribune, The Asia Times, Counterpunch, The Progressive Media Project, ZNet, Foreign Policy In Focus, Creative Syria, Common Dreams, and Race and Class.