In 2007, journalist Deborah Campbell traveled to Damascus to report on the flow of Iraqi refugees into Syria following the fall of Saddam Hussein. While there, she hired an Iraqi refugee named Ahlam to help her as a fixer. But while working together, Ahlam was kidnapped in front of her eyes. In her recent book, A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War, Campbell recounts her time reporting in Syria and her desperate attempt to find her fixer and friend.

Deborah Campbell will appear in conversation with Peter Klein, Echo Wang Jing and Ism'ail Kushkush at the Columbia Journalism School's World Room (2950 Broadway) September 18 at 6 p.m.