International Issues Discussion (IID) series - Genocide in Sinjar: Uncertain Futures in Iraq

The International Issues Discussion (IID) series at Toronto Metropolitan University is proud to present its fourth talk of the Winter 2025 series: "Genocide in Sinjar: Uncertain Futures in Iraq ".

Our guests will be:

Nathaniel Brunt, an interdisciplinary scholar, documentarian, and educator. His documentary and academic work critically examines modern armed conflict and the way it is, and has been, represented photographically. Brunt recently completed his PhD in the Communication and Culture joint program at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University. His research was supported by SSHRC and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, he obtained two Master's Degrees from the University of Kent's War. Media and Security program and the Communication and Culture joint program at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University. Brunt's photographic work has been widely published and exhibited internationally. He is currently working on a long term documentary project in Northern Iraq and Kashmir and is a cross-appointed post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Global Studies and the University of Victoria Libraries. While diverse in format, Brunt's work is connected by a commitment to producing creative projects that personalize the often-abstract nature of modern war. 

Mike Fleet, a Defence Policy Officer with the Department of National Defence, Government of Canada. He previously worked as a Senior Analyst with the Privy Council Office where he focused on Iraq and Gulf States. He also has worked as a Senior Researcher with the Institute on Governance on the Iraq Team that implemented the Fiscal Decentralization and Resiliency Project. His current research focus is on Iraqi politics, federalism, state-building, and conflict dynamics. He has published with the Middle East Institute and the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani with the Institute of Regional and International Studies, and published a chapter in "Middle Power in the Middle East," where he with his co-author, Nizar Mohammed, examined Canada's security capacity building programming in the Middle East via Op.IMPACT and Op. PROTEUS. He has been quoted in Reuters and The National. He tweets @MikeFleet23.