Mariella Furrer is a photojournalist based between Kenya and South Africa. Of Swiss-Lebanese descent, she grew up in South Africa and covers Africa, Europe and the Middle East for newspapers, magazines, books, nonprofit organizations and corporations. This year she served on the jury for the annual World Press Photo contest.

Celia Peterson has lived in Dubai for 12 years as a portrait, editorial and lifestyle photographer, and she recently expanded into filmmaking. Her favorite subjects are “compelling either for their quirkiness or because they highlight positive human stories.”

George Azar is author of Palestine: A Photographic Journey (University of California, 1991), co-author of Palestine: A Guide (Interlink, 2005) and director of the films Beirut Photographer (2012) and Gaza Fixer (2007). He lives in Beirut.

Tom Verde (tomverde.pressfolios.com) is a senior contributor to AramcoWorld. Like the majority of those who responded to a 2015 global survey, his favorite color is blue. 

Historian and travel writer Gail Simmons surveyed historic buildings and led hikes in Italy and the Middle East before becoming a full-time travel writer for UK and international publications. She holds a master’s degree in medieval history from the University of York and is currently earning her Ph.D. She lives in Oxford, England.

Meridith Kohut is a photojournalist based in Houston, Texas, who has documented humanitarian and cultural issues in Latin America since 2007. She earned a Courage in Journalism award for her decade of work covering the region and was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography.

Writer Graham Chandler focuses on archeology, aviation and energy. He received his Ph.D. in archeology from the University of London, and he lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Clive Foss is retired from teaching history at Georgetown University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he collects coins and writes on Byzantine and early Islamic history, archeology and numismatics.

is AramcoWorld’s digital media editor. (@aramcoworld)

Norwegian-born Tor Eigeland has traveled all his life as a freelance writer and photographer, and he has contributed for decades to AramcoWorld as well as to many other publications.

Brian E. Clark is a Wisconsin-based writer, photographer and former columnist for the Milwaukee Sentinal Journal. He also contributes regularly to other publications, including The Los Angeles Times.

Matthew Teller is a UK-based writer and journalist. His latest book, Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City, was published last year. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @matthewteller and at matthewteller.com.

Photojournalist Matthieu Paley specializes in documenting people and regions that are often misrepresented and is committed to issues relating to diminishing cultures and the environment. He is a regular contributor for National Geographic.

When artist Norman MacDonald compared his own brushes, inks and watercolors in his Amsterdam studio to records of those in Egypt as long as 3,500 years ago, he says he “realized again how little the tools of a painter’s craft have changed.”

Piney Kesting is a Boston-based freelance writer and consultant who specializes in the Middle East.

David H. Wells is a multi-media photojournalist based in Rhode Island and a regular contributor to AramcoWorld; he also publishes a photography-education forum at www.thewellspoint.com.

Based in Brooklyn, NY, Lee Lawrence writes frequently on Islamic and Asian art for the Wall Street Journal and cultural affairs for The Christian Science Monitor.

Random House author and photojournalist Eric Hansen is a frequent contributor to AramcoWorld. He lives in California’s Central Valley.

Artist Helen Zughaib was born in Beirut. She received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her most recent solo exhibitions were at the Arab American National Museum, which hosted the full original series “Stories My Father Told Me,” and at University of Maryland University College and the Mamia Bretesche Gallery in Paris, which showed “Conflict Within.” She lives and paints in Washington, D.C.

Elia Kamal Zughaib studied at Syracuse University, and in 1959 he joined the U.S. Foreign Service to work in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and France until his retirement in 1978. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Jeff Koehler is an American writer and photographer based in Barcelona. His most recent book is Where the Wild Coffee Grows (Bloomsbury, 2017), an “Editor’s Choice” in The New York Times. His previous book, Darjeeling: A History of the World’s Greatest Tea (Bloomsbury, 2016), won the 2016 IACP award for literary food writing. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Food & Wine and NPR.org. Follow him on Twitter @koehlercooks and Instagram @jeff_koehler.

Caroline Stone divides her time between Cambridge and Seville. Her latest book, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness, translated with Paul Lunde from the medieval Arab accounts of the lands in the Far North, was published in 2011 by Penguin Classics.

Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat and a freelance journalist and photographer.

Based out of Istanbul, photographer Carolyn Drake worked extensively in Central Asia between 2007 and 2013. She now resides in the United States, where she has begun a new photo project.

is an illustrator based in New York, where she attends the School of Visual Arts.

([email protected]) is a New York film production designer who also writes about food, style and history and regularly attends the Oxford Food Symposium. Readers of her blog “Lost Past Remembered” often come for the recipes and stay for the stories.

Alam is the founder of Drik Picture Library (www.drik.net), the Bangladesh Photo Institute, Pathshala (the South Asian Institute of Photography) as well as the biennial Chobi Mela Festival of Photography in Asia. He lives in Dhaka.

Gerald Zarr ([email protected]) is a writer, lecturer and develop-ment consultant who lived and worked overseas as a US For-eign Service officer for more than 20 years. He is the author of a cultural guidebook on Tunisia and numerous articles on the history and culture of the Middle East.

Anthropologist and photographer Donatella Davanzo is a doc-toral student at the University of New Mexico who specializes in acequia cultures and systems as well as Southwestern Na-tive cultures and Route 66. She lives in Albuquerque.

Conservation architects Agnieszka Do-browolska and Jarosław Dobrowolski are partners in the Cairo-based practice ARCHiNOS Architecture (www.archinos. com). In 2008-9 Agnieszka directed conservation of the sabil-kuttab of Mustafa III with funding from the Dutch Embassy and the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC). She is also co-author of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha and His Sabil (2004, AUC Press) and author of The Building Crafts of Cairo (2005, AUC Press); Jarosław is author of The Living Stones of Cairo (2001, AUC Press) and they jointly authored Heliopolis: Rebirth of the City of the Sun (2006, AUC Press).

Ian Coller, Ph.D., is associate professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. Born in Australia, he previ-ously taught at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, Australia. His prizewinning book "Arab France: Islam and the Making of Modern Europe, 1798-1831" was published in 2011 by the University of California Press. He is currently working on a history of the French Revolution and Islam.

Frank L. Holt ([email protected]) is professor of ancient history at the University of Houston as well as founder and director of the Houston Mummy Research Program, to whose members and contributors he expresses his thanks.

(www.mandakphoto.net) is a freelance photographer based in Los Angeles and New York who specializes in entertainment, performing arts, events and people. Follow her Instagram @dnt4gethextras and Twitter @amandakmchugh.

(@andrewdansby) is an entertainment writer for the Houston Chronicle whose work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, NME, Men’s Journal and more.

Nik Wheeler (www.nikwheeler.com) first worked for Aramco World and Saudi Aramco World in the 1970's. illustrating some 20 articles as well as special issues on Central Asia, China and the Silk Roads. His book "The Most Beautiful Villages and Towns of the Pacific Northwest" was published in 2011.

Jeremy Hance (www.jeremyhance.com) is a US-based freelance reporter. He writes the “Radical Conservation” blog at The Guardian and is a regular contributor for Mongabay. He counts himself lucky to have met seven Sumatran rhinos. Follow him on Twitter @jeremy_hance.

Michael Nelson (www.lifeonthewire.photo) is an award-winning US-based photojournalist who has been based in Lebanon, Belgium, Egypt and the US during his 35-year career. He currently lives in Los Angeles and works for the European Presphoto Agency.

Fiona Dunlap is a food and travel writer, blogger and photographer. She has globetrotted for decades from successive home bases in Paris and London while regularly retreating to her house amid the olive groves of Andalusia. After writing widely on travel, art and design, her passion for food led her to create her first cookbook, New Tapas (2002), followed by The North African Kitchen (2008) and Mexican Modern (2013). Her articles have appeared in the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, CNN.com and numerous magazines. She is the author of National Geographic’s guides to Spain and Portugal, and she has worked as a guest lecturer on their expeditions as well as on other tours.

Waleed Dashash has served as the visuals editor for AramcoWorld since 2023.

Homara Choudhary is an international multimedia journalist, presenter and moderator, who has worked for major networks including BBC, ITV and Al Jazeera. She has also moderated for Web Summit and produced content for Doha Debates and Media City in Qatar.

Beawiharta is an award-winning Indonesian photojournalist. He formerly worked for Reuters some 20 years covering events across Asia. He is currently working independently for various publications and NGOs.

Lebanon-born and Atlanta-based, artist, entrepreneur and coffee aficionado Teresa Abboud produced her illustrations for this article using coffee, a spoon and brushes. She is the creator of her “Coffee Time” and “Teresa Afternoon” collections of art, household items and clothing. Follow @teresa_afternoon, and visit www.teresaafternoon.com.

Talal Afandi (talalafandi.com) is an editorial photographer based in Saudi Arabia and a graduate in visual arts from Ramapo College in New Jersey.

Mohammed Al Sarai is an Iraqi journalist working on investigative reports and on stories related to Iraqi heritage.

Sara Al-Bassam is a writer, researcher, startup consultant and new fan of camels. She lives in al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Artist Manal AlDowayan works in black-and-white photography, sculpture, video, audio, neon and participatory installations that have attracted hundreds of women to use art to address social issues. Her works are in museum and private collections worldwide, and this year she was selected for a Robert Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida. She holds a master’s degree in systems analysis and design, and she lives and works between Dubai and her native Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Mostafa Alkharouf is a documentary photojournalist with the Anadolu Agency based in East Jerusalem whose work, focused on daily life in Palestine, has been published globally.

Scott Baldauf is a former correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor, based in New Delhi and Johannesburg, and is now a writer and editor with Saudi Aramco Public Affairs in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Ian Bancroft is a writer and former diplomat based in the former Yugoslavia. He is the author of a novel, Luka, and a work of nonfiction, Dragon’s Teeth: Tales From North Kosovo.

Doug Baum has guided commercial camel treks in Egypt, Jordan, India and Morocco since 2003 and in Texas since 1998. This article is adapted from a paper presented at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He lives with his family and camels—six dromedaries and three Bactrians—near Waco, Texas. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @texascamelcorps.

Mariana Bazo also lives in Lima, where she is a freelance photographer. She was a photojournalist for Reuters for more than 25 years. Her photos have been published in newspapers from The New York Times to China Daily. Follow her on Twitter @mbazo and Instagram @marianabazo.

Based in Philadelphia and Mumbai, Nilosree Biswas is an author, filmmaker and columnist who writes about Asian history, art, culture, food and cinema. Her work regularly appears in national and international media.

Fabian Brennecke is a documentary photographer based in Berlin who specializes in social and cultural documentaries as well as portraiture.

Artist, illustrator and publication designer Matthew Bromley runs Graphic Engine Design in Austin, Texas, and he is the graphic designer of AramcoWorld. Contact him at [email protected], @robot.matthew.bromley on Instagram.

Steve Brown is a journalist and historian based in the Mojave Desert, not far from the route Hi Jolly first took across California. He has encountered many strange things in the desert, but no camels—not yet.

Kevin Bubriski ([email protected]) is a documentary photographer whose most recent book is Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War (2019), published by powerhouse Books. Other recent books include Mustang in Black and White (Vajra Books, 2018) and Kailash Yatra: A Long Walk to Mt. Kailash through Humla (Penguin Random House India, 2018). Follow him on Instagram @kevinbubriski.

Felicia Campbell holds a master’s degree in Middle Eastern food culture from New York University, and she is the author of The Food of Oman: Recipes and Stories from the Gateway to Arabia (Andrews McMeel, forthcoming October 2015). She splits her time between the Arabian Peninsula and New York City writing about food, travel and culture.

A former resident of Saudi Arabia, freelancer Kay Hardy Campbell writes often about Middle Eastern culture.

Ana M. Carreño Leyva lives in Granada, Spain, where she is a translator of modern languages and a freelance writer who specializes in the diverse cultural heritages of al-Andalus and the Mediterranean region.

Charles O. Cecil ([email protected]) served 36 years in the US Foreign Service, and he retired in 2007 to devote himself to photography and writing. His images are online at www.cecilimages.com.

Joe Center is a Houston-based photographer and writer. His mantra is “Notice. Appreciate. Acknowledge.”

Canadian writer and photographer Sheldon Chad extends his thanks to the many people he met while covering this story who contributed not only expertise but deep care about the forests and their country. “Breathing in the cedar forests for days, one can only be awed by our cultural and biological relationship to trees,” Chad says. He currently lives in Brussels.

Paul G. Chamberlain, Ph.D., is a historical geographer who grew up in Kuwait, and he has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, researching, writing and lecturing about the region. He teaches in the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada, specializing in history, comparative religion, and current events in the Arab world.

Poras Chaudhary is a photographer based in Haryana, India, known for his striking compositions capturing daily life with an eye for color. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times and has won numerous awards.

Lorraine Chittock is the author of five books on the bond between humans and animals. She’s currently finishing her first film, Rallying for A Wild Life—Keeping our Adventures and Wild Spaces Wild. Find her on Facebook, Twitter and at www.LorraineChittock.com.

Ken Chitwood, Ph.D., is an award-winning writer on religion, travel and culture. He is currently a Fritz Thyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Re- search Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies of Freie Universität Berlin. He is also a journalist-fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s Spiritual Exemplars Project, and he lectures in Islamic science at Otto Friedrich Universität Bamberg.

Arthur P. Clark is a former assistant editor of AramcoWorld, editor of Al-Ayyam Al-Jamilah, the magazine for Aramco retirees, and is actively involved in the curation of antiquities and archive materials for Aramco.

Leela Corman is an award-winning illustrator and cartoonist. She is also a co-founder of Sequential Artists Workshop in Gainesville, Florida.

In addition to contributing regularly to AramcoWorld, Paris-based Richard Covington has written about culture, history and science for numerous publications.

Jonathan Curiel is a San Francisco journalist who has written widely about the Middle East, and he is the author of Al’ America: Travels Through America’s Arab and Islamic Roots (New Press, 2008).

Nick de la Torre grew up in El Paso, Texas, and is a multimedia artist in Houston. Nick has more than 30 years of storytelling experience.

Charlotte Doughty is a student majoring in journalism and Latin American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Richard Doughty is editor of AramcoWorld. He holds a master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri.

Richard Duebel is a filmmaker, photographer and art director who has been working in North Africa and the Middle East for more than 20 years. His interests lie in culture, the environment and the applied arts.

Armin Durgut is a freelance photojournalist and a documentary photographer. He is a regular contributor to Associated Press news agency and other publications. His book and an exhibition, “Mrtvare,” poignantly documents the footwear of the Srebrenica genocide victims, and his work often highlights significant historical and social issues.

Banning Eyre is senior producer for Public Radio International’s Peabody Award-winning Afropop Worldwide (afropop.org) and author of a number of books on African music and history.

William Facey is a historian and editor who has written extensively on Arabian travelers, British Muslims, the early photography of Arabia, and Arabian architecture and maritime history. After a career as a museum planner in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula states, he founded Arabian Publishing in London in 2002.

Hal Foster is a former Los Angeles Times journalist who spent eight years in Kazakhstan as a communication professor and writer.

Jonathan Friedlander is a historian, author and photographer. Formerly assistant director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, he is presently affiliated with UCLA's Young Research Library. His forthcoming study is entitled Orientalism and Americana: The Middle East in American Jazz.

Ramin Ganeshram is author of Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago(Hippocrene Books, 2010).

Suzanne Garofalo is a copy editor and writer at AramcoWorld. She holds a degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin and has contributed to a variety of publications for more than two decades.

Emily Garthwaite is an Iraq-based photojournalist, Leica Ambassador and storyteller focusing on environmental and humanitarian stories.

Alfonso Godinez is a freelance photographer and visual artist, based in Los Angeles. Follow his work on Instagram @leanderstudios.

Jane Waldron Grutz is a former staff writer for Saudi Aramco who now divides her time between Houston and London. She is a regular contributor to AramcoWorld.

is a former head curator of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia and is now its associate curator, based once again in his London hometown. He is the co-curator of an exhibition on East-West encounters to be held at the Brit-ish Museum in October 2019.

Bear Gutierrez is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and commercial photographer based in Denver. After 10 years on staff at the Rocky Mountain News, he is now also a frequent volunteer mentor for aspiring journalists.

Maryland-based journalist Laila El-Haddad (www.LailaHaddad.com) is the author of The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey (Just World Books, 2013). She frequently writes on the intersection of food and politics and is currently working on a book about the history of Islam in America, as told through food. Follow her on Facebook, or on Twitter @Gazamom.

Peter Harrigan is a contributing editor and writer for Aramco World. As founder and editorial director of Medina Publishing, he has authored books on Riyadh and Diriyah. He is also commissioning editor for Arabian Publishing whose recent titles include Across Arabia: Three Weeks in 1937 by Geraldine Rendel.

Kate Hazell is a British writer, editor and fashion director based in Dubai. Hazell was the editor at Sorbet magazine, fashion director of Esquire Middle East and fashion features editor at Harpers Bazaar Arabia. She is now freelance and regularly contributes fashion, art and culture pieces to Vogue Arabia, Vogue.co.uk, Condé Nast Traveler and The National among others.

Zina Hemady is a journalist, writer and editor who has worked for Reuters News Agency and The Associated Press in both Lebanon and Egypt. She has also written and designed curriculum for education at the K-12 level. Her present work focuses on Middle East heritage.

Richard Henry is an artist and teacher who focuses on the contemplative aspects of pattern. He has a background in philosophy and cognitive psychology.

Trained as a photographer, Juliet Highet lived in East and West Africa as well as India. In Nigeria she began writing and later edited magazines and books from the UK. Widely published on travel, the arts and culture, she is the author of Frankincense: Oman's Gift to the World (Prestel, 2006) and a specialist in traditional and contemporary Arab, African and South Asian cultures and heritage.

Ryan Huddle is a Boston-based graphic designer and artist whose work appears regularly in the Boston Globe and other leading publications.

Kinan Ibrahim ([email protected]) is a photographer and information technology professional living in Tartus, Syria.

Khademul Islam is a writer and translator. He is currently working on a nonfiction book forthcoming from Bloomsbury UK.

Yassine Alaoui Ismaili (@yoriyas) is a Casablanca-based artist and photographer specializing in urban spaces and daily life in Morocco and elsewhere in Africa. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, National Geographic and other leading international publications, as well as exhibitions around the world.

Krisanne Johnson is a Brooklyn-based photographer whose work has been exhibited internationally and appeared in magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times, TIME, and Fader. Johnson holds a Master’s degree in Visual Communications from Ohio University. Since 2006, she has been working on personal projects about young women and HIV/AIDS in Swaziland and post-apartheid youth culture in South Africa.

Boryana Katsarova is a freelance photojournalist represented by the Paris-based Cosmos Photo Agency. She lives in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Photographer Eric Kayne is a native of San Antonio, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Arts in photography from Ohio University. He has worked for numerous publications including the Houston Chronicle. He lives in Washington, DC.

Shaistha Khan is a public relations and freelance writer based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She writes on travel, food, culture and topics that resonate with multicultural millennials like herself.

Rami G. Khouri (@ramikhouri) is a journalist, internationally syndicated columnist and book author. He is a professor of journalism as well as Journalist-in-Residence at the American University of Beirut, where he is developing a course on the reporting methods of Anthony Shadid. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Harvard University.

Rolf Killius is a writer, museum consultant, exhibition curator, ethnomusicologist, oral historian, radio journalist and multimedia producer.

Vyvyan Kinross is author of Information Warriors: the Battle for Hearts and Minds in the Middle East (Gilgamesh Publishing, 2019). He lives in London.

Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News and an adjunct professor at Texas A&M-San Antonio. She recently completed a year-long fellowship with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Coauthor of A History of Science in World Cultures: Voices of Knowledge (Routledge, 2015), from which article was adapted, Kumar is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of physics at the State University of New York, Oswego.

Robert W. Lebling ([email protected]) is a writer, editor and communication specialist who lives and works in Saudi Arabia. He is author of Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar (I.B. Tauris, 2010 & 2014), and he is co-author, with Donna Pepperdine, of Natural Remedies of Arabia (Stacey International, 2006). He is a regular contributor to AramcoWorld. 

Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein is a poet, writer, editor, and educator who splits her time between Chicago, IL (USA) and Stone Town, Zanzibar. Her essays on arts, culture, and education appear in Selamta, Contrary Magazine, Global Voices, Teachers & Writers, Mambo Magazine and Addis Rumble, among others. She currently edits for Global Voices Online and is working on a book of essays about Zanzibar. Follow her on Twitter @travelfarnow or visit her website: travelfarnow.com.

Adriane Lochner is a biologist by training. As a freelance journalist, photographer and travel writer covering cultural and environmental topics worldwide, Lochner spent a year in Kyrgyzstan learning about its culture, environment, people and the snow leopard. Currently, she is based in Germany.

Rosamond E. Mack is an art historian living in Washington, D.C. She is best known for her book Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300–1600 (University of California Press, 2002).

Alan Mammoser writes about cities, the environment, energy, infrastructure and planning. He writes the weblog www.warmearth.us.

Rebecca Marshall is a British editorial photographer based in the south of France. A core member of German photo agency Laif and Global Assignment by Getty Images, she is commissioned regularly by the New York Times, Sunday Times Magazine, Stern and Der Spiegel

Leon McCarron is a writer and broadcaster living in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He is the author of two books and and a forthcoming third, Wounded Tigris: A River Journey Through the Cradle of Civilisation (Corsair, 2022).

Don McCullin is one of the most acclaimed photographers of conflicts and emergencies around the world. In 2017 he was knighted, and in 2019 the Tate Britain gallery mounted a retrospective exhibit. Recently he has pursued landscapes, still life and travel, which have come together in ongoing work on the fringes of the Roman Empire, including Southern Frontiers (2010), with Barnaby Rogerson.

Naoki Miyashita is a Tokyo-based freelance photographer and filmmaker. He specializes in documentaries that convey traditional culture, crafts and other local attractions.

Seitek Moldokasymov is a freelance photographer based in Kyrgyzstan who specializes in nature and landscape. His work has been published in tourism-related websites, calendars and periodicals.

Coauthor of A History of Science in World Cultures: Voices of Knowledge (Routledge, 2015), from which article was adapted, Montgomery is a geoscientist, lecturer and affiliate faculty member at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, as well as author and coauthor of 10 books, three of them on the history of science.

Lina Mounzer is a writer and translator living in Beirut. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Bidoun, Warscapes, The Berlin Quarterly and Chimurenga, as well as Hikayat: An Anthology of Lebanese Women's Writing, published by Telegram Books. Her favorite way of listening to music is through earphones while walking in the city.

Gary Paul Nabhan is a Lebanese American writer, agricultural ecologist and ethnobotanist who lives in the Mexico-US borderlands. He has been honored with a MacArthur Fellowship, the Vavilov Medal for plant exploration, and lifetime achievement awards from several professional societies. He has authored or edited more than 30 books as well as numerous scholarly and popular articles.

Natalie Naccache is a documentary photographer based between Dubai and Beirut. Her photographs have been published and exhibited internationally.

Photojournalist Hatim Oweida is also based in Dhahran, where he works as a staff photographer with Saudi Aramco’s Media Production team.

Toni Öyry is based in Beirut. He works across the Middle East and North Africa focusing on extreme sports productions, branded content, live television and documentaries. 

Stuart Palley is a photographer based in Southern California focusing on documenting climate change, environmental issues, and infrastructure in the American West. He is a contributor to National Geographic magazine among other publications. His memoir Into the Inferno: A Photographer’s Journey Through California’s Megafires and Fallout was published in 2022.

Rebecca Anne Proctor is an independent journalist, editor and broadcaster based between Dubai and Rome. She is a former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar Art and Harper’s Bazaar Interiors.

Samantha Reinders (samreinders.com; @samreinders) is an award-winning photographer, book editor, multimedia producer and workshop leader based in Cape Town, South Africa. She holds a master’s degree in visual communication from Ohio University, and her work has been published in Time, Vogue, The New York Times and more.

Alva Robinson is an assistant editor at AramcoWorld. He holds a master’s degree in Turkic Literary Studies from the University of Washington, and he taught English for four years at International Alatoo University in Bishkek, Kyrgystan. He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Central and Inner Asian Dialogue.

Historian, author and publisher Barnaby Rogerson’s recent books include A History of North Africa (2012), and In Search of Ancient North Africa: A History in Six Lives (2018). He has also written guidebooks to Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus and Istanbul. His day job is running Eland Books (www.travelbooks.co.uk), an independent publisher of classic travel books.

Based in London and Paris, Jacky Rowland is an actor, playwright and broadcaster who writes about art, theatre, music and culture. She is a former correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation and Aljazeera English.

Tristan Rutherford is a 7-time award-winning journalist. His writing appears in The Sunday Times and the Atlantic.

Environmentalist, filmmaker, television host and diving instructor Yuri Sanada is cofounder of Earth Odyssey and a Fellow Member of the Explorer’s Club. He lives near São Paulo, Brazil, in a self-built, environmentally sustainable home.

Peter Sanders is one of world’s most prominent photographers of Muslim cultures. He has traveled the globe seeking images of the warmth and compassion of humanity for more than 55 years.

Linda Dalal Sawaya (www.lindasawaya.com; @lindasawayaART) is a Lebanese American artist, illustrator, ceramicist, writer, teacher, gardener and cook in Portland, Oregon. Her 1997 cover story, “Memories of a Lebanese Garden,” highlighted her illustrated cookbook tribute to her mother, Alice's Kitchen: Traditional Lebanese Cooking. She exhibits regularly throughout the US, and she is listed in the Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists.

Norbert Schiller has been photographing the Middle East and North Africa for three decades and currently serves as the curator for photorientalist.org, dedicated to 19th- and 20th-century photography in those regions. He has worked for the Associated Press and Agence France Press, and has contributed to Der Spiegel, The New York Times, and A Million Steps: Discovering the Lebanon Mountain Trail (2011, Interlink Books).

Mesa Schumacher is a science illustrator and animator and a regular contributor to National Geographic and Scientific American, and her work can be found in textbooks, infographic anthologies and field guides. She currently lives in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Filmmaker and writer Mariam Shahin has produced and directed more than 70 documentary films, and she is author of Palestine: A Guide (Interlink Books, 2005) and coauthor of Unheard Voices: Iraqi Women on War and Sanctions (Change, 1992).

Andrew Shaylor is a portrait, documentary and travel photographer based just outside London and has visited 70 countries. He works with a variety of magazines and has published two books, Rockin’: The Rockabilly Scene and Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

Seattle-based multimedia journalist Steve Shelton has covered stories in the US, Middle East, Balkans, Central America and Sudan for a wide variety of news publications as well as nonprofits and commercial clients. 

Geochemist, mineralogist and science writer Andrew A. Sicree teaches university geosciences and conducts research for mining, oil and gas industries. He lives and works near State College in central Pennsylvania.

Sylvia Smith makes radio and television programs from the Arab world as well as reports from Europe and elsewhere that explore connections with North Africa and the Middle East.

Mitra Taj is an independent reporter and columnist based in Lima.

Sarah Taqvi is the assistant editor of AramcoWorld.

Beliz Tecirli, Ph.D., advises on sustainability and environment, social, governance (ESG) performance for businesses and she also specializes in sustainable urban cultural development. She writes about art, culture, lifestyle and environmental impact in the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.

Tara Todras-Whitehill is an award-winning photojournalist and CEO of the TW Storytelling Agency, based in Lisbon, Portugal. Her passion is empowering NGOs, social impact teams, and journalists with impactful storytelling.

Pamela Toler holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. She is the author of Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War, scheduled for release in January in conjunction with the PBS series Mercy Street.

David W. Tschanz has advanced degrees in history and epidemiology. Before his retirement in 2012, he had worked for Saudi Aramco Medical Services in Dhahran for more than two decades, and he has been a frequent contributor to AramcoWorld on the history of medieval Islamic science. He lives in Venice, Florida.

Ilir Tsouko is a visual storyteller based in Berlin and Tirana, Albania, who focuses primarily on migration, social issues and political events.

Islam Utegenov (@utegenov_islam) is an Aktobe-based photographer and videographer who also mentors young athletes as a boxing coach.

Jean Paul Vellotti is a photographer whose work illustrated Sweet Hands and has appeared also in The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Caribbean Travel & Life, Islands and more.

Ramin Vellotti is author of Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago (Hippocrene Books, 2010) and FutureChefs: Recipes by Tomorrow’s Cooks Across the Nation and the World (Rodale Books, 2014), and her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Bon Appetit and National Geographic Traveler.

Louis Werner is a writer and filmmaker living in New York City.

J. Trevor Williams is a global business journalist based in Atlanta where he serves as publisher of the online international news site, Global Atlanta (globalatlanta.com). Follow him on Twitter @jtrevorwilliams.

Adam Williamson is a leading specialist in biomorphic arabesque pattern as well as a skilled carver and artist. Together, Henry and Williamson direct the London-based Art of Islamic Pattern, which offers short courses, workshops and exhibitions at locations renowned for pattern-based artistic heritages in more than half a dozen countries.

Jeroen Wolf is based in Amsterdam and worked as a print journalist and television researcher for Dutch Public Broadcasting until he founded his own video production company in 2003. He specializes in documentary work.

Dianna Wray is a nationally award-winning journalist and editor from Houston, Texas, and the current editor-in-chief of Houstonia magazine.

John O’Callaghan is a former Reuters journalist who has spent much of his career working, living and traveling in various parts of Asia.

Kitty Yin Ling Miao, Ph.D., is an artist, poet and scholar who lives in California and specializes in ancient Chinese bone and turtle (or oracle bone) script. She is author and artist of Brush of the Cat (artpalpitation.net, 2015).

David Degner holds a master’s degree in photojournalism from Western Kentucky University, where he also majored in philosophy. He lived in Egypt for eight years, where he edited Panorama, a journal of photography. He is currently pursuing projects in West Africa.

Alia Yunis, a writer and filmmaker based in Abu Dhabi, recently completed the documentary The Golden Harvest.

Jack Zahora is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared on various major outlets including National Public Radio and Al Jazeera English. He’s also the Chief Content Officer and managing partner of TW Storytelling Agency, a media company that’s based in Lisbon, Portugal.