Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, many Iraqi academics were assassinated. Countless others received bullets in envelopes and instructions to leave their institutions (and in many cases the country) or get killed. Many heeded the warning and fled into exile. Having played such a pivotal role in shaping post-independence Iraqi society, the exile and internal displacement of its academics has had a profound impact. Tracing the academic, political, and social lives of more than 60 academics, Bullets in Envelopes offers a 'genealogy of loss', and a groundbreaking appraisal of the dismantling and restructuring of Iraqi institutions, culture and society. Through extensive fieldwork in the UK, Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan, Louis Yako shows the human side of the destructive 2003 occupation, how things are today, and how they came to be.

Louis Yako is an independent Iraqi-American anthropologist, writer, poet, and journalist. He has written for a range of publications including CounterPunch, openDemocracy, Global Research and The Feminist Wire.

'Excavates a searing genealogy of loss that documents Iraqi academics' displacement, through a powerful account of the travails of higher education and the links between power and knowledge'
Sherene Seikaly, Associate Professor in the Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara