New School of Communications faculty member Ahmed Fadaam was a guest on American Public Radio's "The Story" broadcast Aug. 27 on WUNC-FM.
The nationally distributed show, hosted by Dick Gordon from North Carolina Public Radio, offered this preview: “We have followed Ahmed Fadaam for six years — during the Iraq War and after U.S. troops pulled out. This month, he moved to the U.S. with his family, and he now faces the challenge many immigrants have faced — to find a place in America.”
In the interview, Fadaam talks about the decision to leave his
homeland, the bureaucratic curveballs that occurred, and the cultural differences for his wife, three children and himself in living in a quiet, tree-lined residential neighborhood in Burlington — far from their noisy, hectic and neighbor-filled lives in Baghdad.
Fadaam spent a decade as an interpreter and journalist in Iraq, first for Agence France Presse, then as Baghdad newsroom supervisor for The New York Times and The Times of London, and most recently as an editor and producer for Al Jazeera English television. Before the war, he was a professor of fine arts at Baghdad University. He served as a visiting scholar-in-residence at Elon in 2008-09, teaching a winter term course and sculpting a life-size statue as a gift to the university, now on display in front of Arts West.
To listen to the story, visit http://thestory.org/. Click on “Listen Now” on the righthand side and then the Aug. 27 date. The segment is the first 20 minutes of the radio show.