Control Room star to speak on campus
March 3, 2006
Former U.S. Marine Lt. Colonel Josh Rushing, the accidental star of Jehane Noujaim's 2004 documentary Control Room, will speak at Wheaton on Tuesday, March 28, as part of a weeklong series of events to mark the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. His lecture, entitled ''Confessions of a Former Spin Doctor: From Marine Spokesperson to Al Jazeera Journalist,'' will discuss the war, the film and his new profession--as a journalist for the leading Arabic news organization.
Control Room explored U.S. and Arab perspectives on the war in Iraq and the controversy surrounding Al Jazeera's coverage of the war. As a press officer for the U.S. military command headquarters in Qatar, Rushing was tasked to escort Noujaim and her film crew. In the course of their interactions, Rushing demonstrated an ability to engage in meaningful dialog and exchange with Al Jazeera journalists, and while he never wavered from his convictions--he supported the U.S. mission to oust Saddam Hussein--he showed great empathy for the suffering of Iraqi civilians. As a result, he was both praised and pilloried in the U.S. media and in political circles and, according to Rushing, eventually forced to leave the military.
The Rushing lecture is the capstone event in a week of activities sponsored by the Wheaton Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as an opportunity to reflect on the war.
• On March 21 Control Room will be screened and Assistant Professor of Film Studies and Literature Josh Stenger will lead a discussion.
• On March 23 Assistant Professor of Theatre Stephanie Burlington will direct a staged reading of Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, followed by a discussion lead by Adar Cohen '05, George Mitchell Scholar.
• On March 27 the documentary, The Fog of War, will be screened.
Wheaton professors believe the events will build on several recent college programs designed to help students better understand U.S. foreign policy. In fall 2004, all first-year students read Jedediah Purdy's Being America: Liberty, Commerce, and Violence in an American World and saw Control Room. In spring 2005 filmmaker Noujaim spoke to students on campus.
''It's the embodiment of Wheaton's curricular emphasis on making connections, not only across disciplines and academic ways of knowing, but across social and geopolitical divides and cultural ways of knowing,'' explained Assistant Professor of Political Science Gerry Huiskamp. ''To my mind, the connection to film as literature is especially appropriate given our major new programmatic initiative to build a multidisciplinary film studies program.''
Times and locations for events are being finalized. Please check the Wheaton College calendar later in March for details.
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