Suzi Mirgani

Suzi Mirgani
Assistant Director for Publications
Suzi Mirgani is Editor/Assistant Director for Publications at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar. A media studies and museum studies graduate, her research lies at the intersection of politics and popular culture. She is author of Target Markets: International Terrorism Meets Global Capitalism in the Mall (Transcript Press, 2017); editor of Art and Cultural Production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Routledge, 2018), among other titles.
Her recent publications include: “Peeking behind the Curtain: Gulf Filmmakers Imagine the Lives of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the Arabian Peninsula,” in Reorienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet (2023); and “Consumer Citizenship: National Identity and Museum Merchandise in Qatar,” Middle East Journal 73, no. 4 (2019). Mirgani publishes short stories and poetry, some of which have appeared in Mizna 23, no. 2 (2022); International Feminist Journal of Politics(2007); Journeys Home: An Anthology of Contemporary African Diasporic Experience (2009).
As a complement to her academic work, Mirgani is also a filmmaker. Her debut feature Cotton Queen (2025) was selected to premiere at the Critics’ Week section of the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Her other films include: Kamala Ishag: States of Oneness (2022); Virtual Voice (2021); Al-Sit (2020); Caravan (2016); and Hind’s Dream (2014).
Publications
Books
- Mirgani, Suzi. Target Markets: International Terrorism Meets Global Capitalism in the Mall. Germany: Transcript Press, 2017.
Journal Articles/Online Articles
- Mirgani, Suzi. “GCC Museums Display their Digital Selves during the Coronavirus Pandemic.” CIRS Online Brief, June 17, 2020. bit.ly/Mirgani_CIRS_Brief.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Souvenir Sovereignty in Qatar.” LSE Middle East Centre, Heritage and National Identity Construction in the Gulf: Between State-building and Grassroots Initiatives workshop, February 21, 2020. bit.ly/SuziBlogLSE2020.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Consumer Citizenship: National Identity and Museum Merchandise in Qatar.” Special Issue of Middle East Journal 73, no. 4 (2019): 555-572.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Introduction: Art and Cultural Production in the GCC.” Special Issue of Journal of Arabian Studies 7, no. 1 (2017): 1-12.
- Mirghani, Suzannah. “The War on Piracy: Analyzing the Discursive Battles of Corporate and Government-Sponsored Anti-Piracy Media Campaigns.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 28, no. 2 (2011): 113-134.
- Mirghani, Suzi. “Rain Dance.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 9, no. 4 (December 2007): 558-559.
Book Chapters
- Mirgani, Suzi. “One Hundred Years of Longing: A Story of Sudanese Cinema,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Arab Film and Media, ed. Samirah Alkassim (forthcoming).
- Mirgani, Suzi, and Maysaa Almumin. “The Gulf Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers and the Creative Representation of Sociopolitical Issues in the GCC States,” in Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema, ed. Noha Mellor (Routledge, 2024).
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Peeking behind the Curtain: Gulf Filmmakers Imagine the Lives of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the Arabian Peninsula,” in Reorienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet, eds. Dale Hudson and Alia Yunis (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2023).
- Mirgani, Suzi. “An Overview of Informal Politics in the Middle East.” In Informal Politics in the Middle East, edited by Suzi Mirgani. Hurst, 2020.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Oil for Art’s Sake: Art and Culture in the GCC.” In Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics, edited by Mehran Kamrava. Routledge, 2020.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Making the Final Cut: Filmmaking and Complicating National Identity in Qatar and the GCC States.” In Cinema of the Arab World: Contemporary Directions in Theory and Practice, edited by Terri Ginsberg and Chris Lippard, 45-70. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Collection of photographs.” In The Gulf Crisis: The View from Qatar, edited by Rory Miller, 79-86. Doha, Qatar: Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press, 2018.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Introduction: Art and Cultural Production in the GCC,” in Art and Cultural Production in the Gulf Cooperation Council, ed. Suzi Mirgani (London: Routledge, 2018), 1–11.
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Domesticating Foreign Intellectual Property Laws in the Digital Age: Of Pirates and Qarsana in the GCC States,” in The Digital Middle East, ed. Mohamed Zayani (Oxford University Press, 2018).
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Spectacles of Terror: Media and the Cultural Production of Terrorism.” In Media in the Middle East: Activism, Politics, and Culture, eds. Nele Lenze, Charlotte Schriwer, Zubaidah Abdul Jalil, 107–142 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
- Mirgani, Suzi. “The State of Arab Media in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings,” in Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings, ed. Mohamed Zayani and Suzi Mirgani (Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 1–22.
- Mirgani, Suzi. Nomad Woman Got No Home to Go to,” in Selves at Home, Selves in Exile: Stories of Emplacement and Displacement, ed. Ayşe Lahur Kırtunç, Atilla Silkü, Kenneth W. Rose, and Murat Erdem. Izmir: Ege University Press, 2003.
Creative Writing
- Mirgani, Suzi. “Some Behavioral Characteristics of the Sudanese Honey Bee (Apis mellifera sudanensis).” Mizna 23, no. 2 (2022): 95–86.
- Mirghani, Suzi. “Home Bound.” In Journeys Home: An Anthology of Contemporary African Diasporic Experience, edited by Salome Nnoromele and Lisa Day-Lindsey. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2009.
- Mirghani, Suzi. “Cyprus in Bullets.” In Cypriot Identities: Conversations on Paper, edited by Karin B. Costello, 29-31. Nicosia: Intercollege Press, 2005.
- Mirghani, Suzi. “Sub-Cypriots.” In Cypriot Identities: Conversations on Paper, edited by Karin B. Costello, 32-33. Nicosia: Intercollege Press, 2005.
Edited Books/Journal Special Issues
- Mirgani, Suzi, ed. Informal Politics in the Middle East. London: Hurst, 2020.
- Mirgani, Suzi, ed. Art and Cultural Production in the GCC (Routledge, 2018).
- Zayani, Mohamed, and Suzi Mirgani, eds. Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.
- Babar, Zahra, and Suzi Mirgani, eds. Food Security in the Middle East. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Films
- Cotton Queen (2025, Sudan, Germany, France, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, 93 minutes).
- Kamala Ishag: States of Oneness (2022, United Kingdom, Sudan, Qatar, documentary, 7 minutes).
- Virtual Voice (2021, Sudan/Qatar, creative documentary, 7 minutes).
- Al-Sit (2020, Sudan/Qatar, fiction, 20 minutes).
- Caravan (2016, Sudan/Qatar, fiction, 4 minutes).
- Hind’s Dream (2014, Sudan/Qatar, fiction, 6 minutes).
Conference Presentations
- “Screening Sudan,” panel presentation at “Seeing Sudan: Politics Through Art,” Doha, Georgetown University in Qatar, September 20, 2025.
- “Art and Culture in the Gulf Cooperation Council,” lecture presented at the Chautauqua Institution, August 14, 2025.
- “A Story of Sudanese Cinema: Over One Hundred Years of Longing,” paper presented at Modern Sudan Collective/Docomomo Sudan “Cinema Conversations,” online, January 25, 2025.
- “Filmmaking with Sudanese Refugees in Egypt,” talk delivered at the Arts in Transit conference, UNESCO and American University in Cairo, United Nations International Day of Migrants, December 18, 2024.
- “Artists at Risk: Filmmaking in Sudan,” presentation delivered at Salzburg Global Seminar, “On the Front Line: Artists at Risk, Artists Who Risk,” Salzburg, Austria, March 25-30, 2023.
- “GCC Film Funding, Festivals, and International Influence,” paper delivered at International Studies Association, April 6-11, 2021.
- “Souvenir Sovereignty,” paper delivered at LSE conference on “Heritage and National Identity Construction in the Gulf: Between State-building and Grassroots Initiatives,” London, December 5–6, 2019.
- “Filmmaking as Civil Society in the Gulf Cooperation Council,” paper delivered at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) conference, New Orleans, November 14–17, 2019.
- “Souvenir Sovereignty,” paper delivered at LSE conference on “Heritage and National Identity Construction in the Gulf: Between State-building and Grassroots Initiatives,” London, December 5–6, 2019.
- “Enter through the Gift Shop: Signifying a Modern National Identity through Qatar Museums’ Merchandise,” paper delivered at the Museums in Arabia Conference, London, UK, June 27, 2019.
- “Constructing a Contemporary Qatari National Identity through Qatar Museums’ Merchandise,” paper delivered at the 52nd Annual Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference, San Antonio, Texas, November 17, 2018.
- “Target Markets: International Terrorism Meets Global Capitalism in the Mall,” CIRS Focused Discussion lecture, Center for International and Regional Studies, Georgetown University in Qatar, April 5, 2017.
- “Communicating Change in the Gulf Cooperation States (GCC): Information Technologies and Social Transformation,” paper delivered at International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention, Baltimore, MD, USA, February 23, 2017.
- “Tweeting Terrorism: ICTs and Media Spectacles,” Media in the Contemporary Middle East International Conference, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, September 3, 2015.
- “Advancing Financial Education for Transnational Families,” Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, June 3, 2015.
- “Shop ‘til You Drop: A Mirroring of Global Capitalism and Global Terrorism,” paper delivered at International Studies Association Conference, February 17-21, 2015, New Orleans, LA, USA.
- “The Arab Uprisings and Mediated Resistance: Unofficial Cultural Production,” paper delivered at International Studies Association Conference, March 26-29, 2014, Toronto, Canada.
- “Digital ‘Piracy’ and the Politics of Diffusion: The Discourse of Internet Control and the Battle over Media Messages,” paper delivered at International Studies Association Conference, April 3-6, 2013, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- “Thus Spake Gaylord; Angels In Dire Straits,” paper delivered at “Inscriptions in the Sand” conference, Eastern Mediterranean University, May 12-13, 2005.
- “Aging Bull,” paper delivered at Inscriptions in the Sand conference, Eastern Mediterranean University, June 7-9, 2004.
- “Global Androgyny and Alternative Advertising,” paper delivered at Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
- “Shock-vertising and the Provocation of the Image,” paper delivered at the 2003 “Inscriptions in the Sand” conference, Eastern Mediterranean University.
- “Nomad Woman Got No Home to go to,” paper delivered at Ege University’s 7th International Cultural Studies Symposium, May 2002, Izmir, Turkey.