There exists a pervasive illusion that journalism embodies truth and objectivity, yet it is fundamentally entrenched in a Eurocentric perspective that has long exacerbated social polarization. What ideological forces underpin this medium, enabling it to perpetuate such divisions? 

Artists, as individuals deeply connected to society and its multifaceted truths, strive to reveal these truths through various forms. Positioned on the precipice of a changing world, artists maintain a profound grasp on truth. How can artists intervene to redeem journalism from its historical complicity in supporting hegemonic ideologies? Can the creative and critical sensibilities of artists unearth and challenge the concealed biases and contradictions that journalism often obscures under the guise of objectivity? In what ways can artistic endeavors disrupt the entrenched Eurocentric narratives and foster a more inclusive and emancipatory discourse within the media landscape? How can the aesthetic and imaginative dimensions of art confront and transform the existing power structures that shape journalistic practice? What role can artists play in reimagining journalism as a medium of genuine critical reflection and societal truth? 

Registration opens on December 12, 2025.
 

Wesaam Al-Badry is an investigative journalist, and interdisciplinary artist working in photography, video installation, sculpture, and painting through interconnected themes of identity, migration, simulated wars, and the archives. His work focuses on the social and environmental issues in the U.S. Middle East and the North African diaspora. His current projects investigate how the image-based process and text are complicit in using racialized ethnographic studies in Iraq. 

His early arduous childhood experiences sculpted Al-Badry’s work, which focuses on imagining the human struggle with dignity, and love. 

Al-Badry was born in Nasiriyah, Iraq, when he was seven years old, at the outset of what became known as the Gulf War, his family fled to Saudi Arabia and lived in refugee camps for 4 and half years. In late 1994, Al-Badry and his family were relocated to Lincoln, Nebraska. 

Al-Badry has worked for global media outlets, including CNN and Al-Jazeera America. His photographs have been featured in the New York Times, Rolling Stone Magazine, The Atlantic, NPR, Fortune, The Nation, and Mother Jones. Al-Badry has received The John Collier Jr. Award for Still Photography, Dorothea Lange Fellowship, the Jim Marshall Fellowship for Photography, The National Geographic Society fellowship, Magnum Foundation, and The Emerson Collective, and is currently a fellow at The Center for Visual Documentation. His artwork has been exhibited internationally at museums including the de Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City, Bernstein Gallery at Princeton University, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, and Jenkins Johnston Gallery in San Francisco. 
He currently resides between Berkeley, CA, and Lincoln, NE. Al-Badry received his master’s in New Media journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.