On February 5, 2023, the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) hosted Dr. Omar Dewachi for a lecture entitled “War Biology in the Middle East.” The lecture focused on the long-term impact of war on Iraq’s environment and healthcare infrastructure, and the related emergence of antimicrobial resistance. The talk addressed implications for humanitarian and public health policy in Iraq and across the Middle East region.
VIDEO:
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Omar Dewachi is a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and an associate professor of medical anthropology and global health at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His work examines the social, medical, and environmental fallouts of decades of war and violence in Iraq and the broader Middle East. Before he joined Rutgers in 2018, Dewachi cofounded the Conflict Medicine Program at the American University of Beirut, where he taught social medicine and global health. Dewachi holds an MD from Baghdad University, an MPH from the American University of Beirut, and a PhD in anthropology from Harvard University.
The event was conducted as part of the Iraq Climate Dialogue.
