Moritz Heidegger is an audio engineer and composer based in Vienna, Austria. He is currently working as a freelancer in a broad spectrum of fields ranging from music production, recording, mixing and mastering to sound design and film scoring, working with pretty much everything involving sound with great love for detail. He has been studying sound engineering since 2016 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Judith Chetrit is a Paris-based features writer and audio documentary producer. She mostly covers labour issues and public policies. Her clients include French public radio (Radio France, France Culture…), Le Monde Diplomatique, and specialized publications such as magazines focused on social and economic issues.

Kukka Maria Ahokas is Finnish author and journalist for the culture magazine Voima. Principally, she writes reports and chronicles for the print press.  In addition to her native Finnish language, she works in Spanish, English and Swedish.  She has close ties to Peru, where she has lived on several occasions. In 2021, she works in Lima with a grant from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, writing a non-fiction book on Gen Z political activism.

Astrig Agopian is a French-Armenian freelance journalist based between Paris and Yerevan. Born and raised in Marseille, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Journalism and International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris. She works as a reporter and camerawoman and has been published in various media (print, radio, TV) : Agence France-Presse, Euronews, Radio Télévision Suisse,The Guardian and others.

Nafisa Haji is an American novelist of Indo-Pakistani descent, acclaimed for her explorations of identity, displacement, and cultural heritage. Born in Los Angeles, she spent parts of her childhood in Karachi, Manila, Chicago, and London, experiences that deeply inform her storytelling. Her debut novel, The Writing on My Forehead, was a finalist for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award. Her second novel, The Sweetness of Tears, continues her examination of personal and political boundaries. With a background in American history and education from UC Berkeley and UCLA, and experience teaching in bilingual classrooms, Haji brings a nuanced perspective to her work. She resides in Northern California with her family and maintains close ties to Pakistan.

Nadene Ghouri is the host of On Spec’s Season Four.

An award-winning journalist specialising in human interest and human rights issues, Nadene freelances for major publications including The Guardian and The Mail On Sunday and is a former correspondent of both the BBC and Al Jazeera English. Nadene has reported from around the globe, including the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She lived for 7 years in Afghanistan, and is widely regarded as a specialist on Afghan issues.

Today she also works as a screenwriter and is a New York Times bestselling non-fiction author.

Tessa Fox is a freelance journalist, photographer and filmmaker focusing on conflict, humanitarian affairs and human rights in the Middle East. Currently based in Beirut, Tessa primarily covers Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

Her work can be found in Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Reuters, Al Jazeera, BBC, PRI The World, The National, The Daily Beast, The Telegraph, The Independent, Deutsche Welle, Al-Monitor, Middle East Eye, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, SBS World News and VICE, among others.

She is also the Middle East stringer for Australian Associated Press where she has interviewed Australian ISIS brides in Syria, imprisoned male ISIS members, and lack of government action on repatriation.

As a correspondent Tessa has reported from Syria, Iraq, the West Bank, Lebanon, Turkey, Australia, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Russia and various EU countries.

She was a finalist in the Ossie Award Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma Asia Pacific Prize, 2016 for ‘Generational Trauma: Fresh Battlegrounds from a Forgotten War.'

Tessa is an intermediate level in reading, written and spoken Arabic and Turkish.

She is a member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).

Alisa Zaira Reznick is a journalist and photographer from Flagstaff, Arizona. After several years in Amman, Jordan she returned to Arizona to document migration, human rights and the environment from a new border. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, Mother Jones, NPR, PRX’s The World and the BBC, among others. She currently covers border and immigration issues for Tucson’s NPR affiliate, Arizona Public Media. 

Born next to the Bosphorus, Özge Sebzeci is a documentary and portrait photographer based between Turkey and Germany focusing on stories about gender, migration and ecology. Her approach revolves around establishing trust and intimacy with the people she photographs. She is deeply committed to diverse perspectives in visual storytelling. Sebzeci is a grantee with the National Geographic Society and Magnum Foundation. Her work has been published in National Geographic, Time, Die Zeit, NPR, The Atlantic, NRC Handelsblad,  De Standaard, Horizonte, VG, and 140journos among others. She is a member of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo and Varız Buradayız.

Pesha, who grew up in a circus, spent two years in a smokey newsroom in Cairo. She gave up the desk to freelance, writing extensively about refugees, gender and conflict in Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq. Her work has appeared in outlets including Foreign Policy, the Guardian, the Daily Beast, the New York Review of Books, the Intercept, and PRI. Pesha speaks Arabic and Spanish.

A physicist turned journalist, Umar’s reporting includes breaking news and investigative features, spanning four continents. He is a recipient of grants from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and the National Geographic Society. He has been a correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, Reuters, and Al Jazeera English, reporting from the Middle East and South Asia, and a national investigative reporter with ProPublica. His work has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, the Nation, the Intercept, National Geographic, the Wall Street Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor. Born in Pakistan and raised in New Orleans, he is fluent in Urdu and can do pretty well in Arabic and Turkish.

A former engineer, Oscar is a visual journalist who has covered the global refugee crisis from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.He has been published in NBC News, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, PRI’s The World, Catholic News Service, The Guardian, Ozy, National Geographic Traveler, and other outlets. Among other projects, Oscar is currently working on a National Geographic Explorer’s Grant with Umar to tell the stories of Afghanistan’s refugees. He’s fluent in Spanish, and conversational in French and Turkish.

A musician in a past life, in 2015 Shawn later quit his job at the United Nations to become a foreign correspondent. Since then, he has photographed war and migration in six countries, including the United States. Some recent work can be found in the Guardian, VICE, and Newsweek.

Margaux is a French and Canadian multimedia journalist. She has been based in Paris, Sudan, Kenya and the Central African Republic. In the beginning of 2018, after two years as a video editor with AFP’s Middle-East and North Africa bureau in Cyprus, she left her desk job to settle in Afghanistan as a freelancer. She is a correspondent for Le Figaro; the TV networks France 24 and Arte; and the French radio Europe 1 — and occasionally files for other media. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Le Figaro, Le Temps and others.

Fariba Nawa has been covering global news for 25 years from places like Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and now Turkey. She is also a speaker and author of the book Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey through Afghanistan. A native Afghan, Fariba’s fluent in Farsi/Dari and can get by in Arabic and Turkish. Some recent work can be found in The World, Time, The Christian Science Monitor,  The New Yorker, and The Financial Times.

Luke (he/him) began as a writer and photographer covering college sports in Oakland and is now managing editor at The Citizen. He balances mentoring students at the college paper and a full-time class schedule. He writes about the pandemic, the Peralta school district happenings, the Oakland community and some sports from time to time. Luke is a journalism major who has spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area and cannot wait to get back to doing in-person interviews and investigations when the pandemic is over. His passions are art, activism, writing and speaking up against injustice.

Zakirah is a writer and poet originally from Atlanta, Georgia. She is currently a communications major at Laney Community College and is passionate about writing and cultivating social change for people of indigenous and African American diaspora as well as other people of color. She worked as a student journalist with VOX ATL, Atlanta’s home for uncensored teen publishing and media, and currently writes for The Citizen. She is a proud Black Muslim woman with plans to travel the world telling stories as an investigative journalist.

Ryan is a journalism student at Laney Community College where he is the current managing editor for the Peralta college district’s publication The Citizen. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Ryan values the diverse culture of his city and has dedicated over 10 years to serving the homeless and less fortunate of his community. His passion to serve others has led to his journalism pursuits. He views journalism as a space for truth and advocacy. Ryan has a background in poetry and screenwriting and enjoys incorporating those writing styles into his work. He has been nicknamed the “Profile Whisperer” in The Citizen newsroom for his art of writing feature stories.

Veronica is a journalism major at Laney Community College where she is a staff writer and feature editor for The Citizen. She is a new mother to a bouncing baby girl, full time student, community activist and builder, and aspiring foreign correspondent. As a first generation American with Austrian descent, she is in the midst of acquiring dual citizenship. Her hope is to broaden her scope, responsibility and impact globally.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Noor is an 18-year-old political science major studying at Pasadena City College. Her love for law and drive to reform the American justice system has inspired her to strive toward one day becoming a Supreme Court judge. She’s also interested in writing and journalism. She holds a position as a student ambassador at her college, is an active member of her speech and debate team, and most importantly, a proud Palestinian Muslim woman. Noor speaks Arabic.