Mikhail, Dunya. The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq. New Directions Publishing, 2018.

Since 2014, Daesh (ISIS) has been brutalizing the Yazidi people of northern Iraq: sowing destruction, killing those who won’t convert to Islam, and enslaving young girls and women. The Beekeeper, by the acclaimed poet and journalist Dunya Mikhail, tells the harrowing stories of several women who managed to escape the clutches of Daesh. Mikhail extensively interviews these women—who’ve lost their families and loved ones, who’ve been repeatedly sold, raped, psychologically tortured, and forced to manufacture chemical weapons—and as their tales unfold, an unlikely hero emerges: a beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain, along with a wide network of transporters, helpers, and former cigarette smugglers, to bring these women, one by one, through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, back into safety.

Simpson, Roger and Cote, William. Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting About Victims & Trauma.Columbia University Press, 2006.

Reporting on violence is one of the most problematic features of journalistic practice: the area most frequently criticized by the public and those on the receiving end of that coverage. Now in its second edition, Covering Violence remains a crucial guide for becoming a sensitive and responsible reporter. Discussing such topics as rape and the ethics of interviewing children, the book gives students and journalists a detailed understanding of what is happening "on the scene" of a violent event, including where a reporter can go safely and legally, how to obtain the most useful information, and how best to interview and photograph victims and witnesses.

Goodnow, Katherine, Loham, Jack, and Marfleet, Philip. Museums, the Media, and Refugees.Berghahn Books, 2008.

Across countries and time, asylum-seekers and refugees have been represented in a variety of ways. In some representations they appear negatively, as dangers threatening to ‘over-run’ a country or a region with ‘floods’ of incompatible strangers. In others, the same people are portrayed positively, with compassion, and pictured as desperately in need of assistance. How these competing perceptions are received has significant consequences for determining public policy, human rights, international agreements, and the realization of cultural diversity, and so it is imperative to understand how these images are perpetuated. To this end, this volume reflects on museum practice and the contexts, stories, and images of asylum seekers and refugees prevalent in our mass media.

Murad, Nadia. The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State. Tim Duggan Books, 2017.

Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. Today, Nadia’s story—as a witness to the Islamic State’s brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi—has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide.

Hisham, Marwan (Author) & Molly Crabapple (Illustrator). Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War. Penguin Random House, 2018.

Illustrated with more than eighty ink drawings by Molly Crabapple that bring to life the beauty and chaos, Brothers of the Gun offers a ground-level reflection on the Syrian revolution—and how it bled into international catastrophe and global war. This is a story of pragmatism and idealism, impossible violence and repression, and, even in the midst of war, profound acts of courage, creativity, and hope.

Heineman, Elizabeth D. Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

Since the 1990s, sexual violence in conflict zones has received much media attention. In large part as a result of grassroots feminist organizing in the 1970s and 1980s, mass rapes in the wars in the former Yugoslavia and during the Rwandan genocide received widespread coverage, and international organizations—from courts to NGOs to the UN—have engaged in systematic efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and to ameliorate the effects of wartime sexual violence.

Bradley, Megan. Forced Migration, Reconciliation, and Justice. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015.

At the start of 2014, more people were displaced globally by conflict and human rights violations than at any time since the Second World War. Although many of those displaced, from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Colombia, Kenya, and Sudan, have survived grave human rights abuses that demand redress, the links between forced migration, justice, and reconciliation have historically received little attention. This collection addresses the roles of various actors including governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and displaced persons themselves, raising complex questions about accountability for past injustices and how to support reconciliation in communities shaped by exile.

Mustafa, Shakir. Contemporary Iraqi Fiction: An Anthology. Syracuse University Press, 2008.

The first anthology of its kind in the West, Contemporary Iraqi Fiction gathers work from sixteen Iraqi writers, all translated from Arabic into English. Shedding a bright light on the rich diversity Iraqi experience, Shakir Mustafa has included selections by Iraqi women, Iraqi Jews now living in Israel, and Christians and Muslims living both in Iraq and abroad. While each voice is distinct, they are united in writing about a homeland that has suffered under repression, censorship, war, and occupation. Many of the selections mirror these grim realities, forcing the writers to open up new narrative terrains and experiment with traditional forms.

Mikhail, Dunya. In Her Feminine Sign. New Directions, 2019.

In Her Feminine Sign follows on the heels of Dunya Mikhail’s devastating account of Daesh kidnappings and killings of Yazidi women in Iraq, The Beekeeper. It is the first book she has written in both Arabic and English, a process she talks about in her preface, saying “The poet is at home in both texts, yet she remains a stranger.” With a subtle simplicity and disquieting humor reminiscent of Wislawa Szymborska and an unadorned lyricism wholly her own, Mikhail shifts between her childhood in Baghdad and her present life in Detroit, between Ground Zero and a mass grave, between a game of chess and a flamingo.

Mustafa, Gharbi. What Comes with the Dust. Simon and Schuster, 2018.

Nazo Heydo has drenched herself in kerosene and is ready to light the match in order to avoid marrying the Syrian elder who bought her from Islamic State officials. Her forced marriage is just the latest horror in a journey that began when ISIS fighters surrounded her peaceful village, demanding spoils and the Yazidis’ conversion to Islam. Rebuffed, they took away her father, brothers, and the love of her life in their pickup trucks with the other village men. The women and children they enslaved and separated, transporting the younger women to be trafficked for the pleasure of their soldiers or sold for money. Only Nazo’s wits and daring have saved her from further abuse or death, yet each escape leads to some new horror. Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative, Soz, another young Yazidi, flees her family’s farm when she sees the black-flagged pickups approach. She manages to reach Mount Sinjar, where she joins the Yazidi fighters who have allied with the Kurdish Peshmerga. Her journey will lead back to her homeland to do battle against ISIS. What Comes with the Dust is a powerful novel about genocide and the will to survive as well as a testament to struggles of the Yazidi people.

Lee, Jing Jing. How We Disappeared. Bloomsbury, 2019

Back in 1942, Wang Di is sixteen years old and forced into sexual slavery as a Comfort Woman. What she sees and experiences will haunt her present nearly sixty years later. Meanwhile, after his grandmother's death, Kevin sets about finding out the truth – a truth that will lead him to Wang Di; to the events of that brutal war and to a reckoning no one is prepared for and which can no longer be suppressed. They say the truth will set you free – but what if its horrors have been the very chains you have longed to escape from your whole life?

Hiranandani, Veera. The Night Diary. Kokila, 2018.

The Night Diary tells the story of a young girl named Nisha, who is half-Hindu and half-Muslim. Nisha tries to make sense of the world in 1947, when India is split into India and Pakistan after years of devastating British colonization. The Night Diary is a heartbreaking and empowering story of what tears us apart and how to put those pieces back together again. Told through Nisha’s letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl’s search for home, for her own identity…and for a hopeful future.

Uwiringiyimana, Sandra and Pesta, Abigail. How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child. HarperCollins Books, 2017.

This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism. Uwiringiyimana tells the story of her survival, of finding her place in a new country, of her hope for the future, and how she found a way to give voice to her people.

Merberg, Julie. My First Book of Feminism (for Boys).Simon and Schuster, 2018.

Simple illustrations paired with meaningful aphorisms make the compelling, age-appropriate argument that women are strong and smart and deserve respect. Humorous, familiar scenarios are treated as teachable moments for little boys, who will ideally grow up without ever questioning women’s equality. From “no means no,” to “women’s rights are human rights,” important, grown-up ideas are simplified for young, impressionable minds.

Kamps, Louisa, Susanna Daniel and Michelle Wildgen. Girl Activist. Downtown Bookworks, 2019.

Mini-biographies of unstoppable women and non-binary activists—from Malala Yousafzai to Susan B. Anthony, Emma Gonzalez to Gloria Steinem, Wangari Maathai to Amythest Schaber—offer windows into what it takes to stand up for a cause, rally others together, and even ignite a movement. The book features activists from around the world and throughout history, spotlighting impressive women who have fought for women's rights, racial equality, animal welfare, democracy, environmental causes, and more. Each story reminds readers that they really can make a difference in the world and inspires today's young activists to stand up for what they believe in.

Williams, Karen, Mohammed, Khadra, and Stock, Catherine. My Name Is Sangoel. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2009.

Sangoel is a refugee. Leaving behind his homeland of Sudan, where his father died in the war, he has little to call his own other than his name, a Dinka name handed down, proudly from his father and grandfather before him. When Sangoel and his mother and sister are resettled in America, things are supposed to be better but life in their new home is strange and lonely. The refugee camp seems better than this place where no one can pronounce his name and some even make jokes about it. Sangoel quietly endures the homesickness and ignores his mother’s suggestion that he might want to take an American name. He finally comes up with and ingenious solution to this problem and in the process begins to make friends and perhaps feel a little at home.

Roberts, Ceri and Kai, Hanane. Children in Our World: Refugees and Migrants.B.E.S. Publishing, 2017.

The Children in Our World picture book series helps children make sense of the larger issues and crises that dominate the news in a sensitive and appropriate manner. With relatable comparisons, carefully researched text and striking illustrations, children can begin to understand who refugees and migrants are, why they’ve left their homes, where they live and what readers can do to help those in need. Where issues aren’t appropriate to describe in words, Hanane Kai’s striking and sensitive illustrations help children visualise who refugees and migrants are, in images that are suited to their age and disposition.

Spilsbury, Louise and Kai, Hanane. Children in Our World: Global Conflict. B.E.S. Publishing, 2018.

With relatable comparisons, carefully researched text and striking illustrations, children can begin to understand what war and conflict are, how they affect people and how readers can help those who are affected. Where issues aren't appropriate to describe in words, Hanane Kai's striking and sensitive illustrations help children visualise what war and conflict are, in images that are suited to their age and disposition. In Global Conflict, children can get answers to questions like: what is global conflict? And how does it affect people in countries all over the world? Children will begin to understand the way others struggle with these issues and discover ways they can help.

Williams, Mary, Christie, R. Gregory and Christie, Gregory. Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan.Lee & Low Books, 2005.

Eight-year-old Garang is tending cattle far from his family's home in southern Sudan when war comes to his village. Frightened but unharmed, he returns to find everything has been destroyed. Soon Garang meets other boys whose villages have been attacked, they become a moving band of thousands, walking hundreds of miles seeking safety and facing dangers along the way. Their faith and mutual support help keep the hope of finding a new home alive in their hearts. Based on heartbreaking yet inspirational true events of the Lost Boys of Sudan, this is a story of remarkable and enduring courage, and an amazing testament to the unyielding power of the human spirit.