Dr. Maha Hilal is a Muslim Arab American and an expert on institutionalized Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and counternarrative work. Dr. Hilal is the author of the book Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11. Her writings have appeared in Vox, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Truthout, among others. Dr. Hilal is the founding Executive Director of Muslim Counterpublics Lab, an organization that works to disrupt and subvert dehumanizing narratives that are designed and deployed to justify state violence against Muslims. This includes serving as a founding steering committee member of the Guantanamo Survivors Fund, which provides small grants to the men transferred out of detention. Through her work at MCL, she also co-coordinates the For Us Not Amazon coalition that challenges the presence of Amazon in the greater Washington, DC area. She has worked at a number of human rights/social justice organizations including Institute for Policy Studies, the Government Accountability Project, and Center for Victims of Torture. Additionally, Dr. Hilal is an organizer with Witness Against Torture, an organization that organizes and advocates for the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison and an end to torture. Dr. Hilal earned her doctorate in May 2014 from the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University in Washington, D.C. She received her Master's Degree in Counseling and her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her spare time, Dr. Hilal enjoys spending time with her family and practicing Arabic calligraphy.