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 Informal Politics in the Middle East (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2021); and Art and Cultural Production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (London: Routledge, 2017); and co-editor of Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings (Oxford University Press/Hurst 2016), and Food Security in the Middle East (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2014).

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, eds. Dale Hudson and Alia Yunis (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2023); and “Consumer Citizenship: National Identity and Museum Merchandise in Qatar,” Middle East Journal 73, no. 4 (2019). Mirgani served as book review editor for the Journal of Arabian Studies from 2015 to 2022, and she 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 a filmmaker, with works that include: Kamala Ishag: States of Oneness (2022); Virtual Voice (2021); Al-Sit (2020); Caravan (2016); and Hind’s Dream (2014).

 

Publications

Books

Journal Articles/Online Articles

Book Chapters

  • 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).

Creative Writing

  • 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

Films

  • Virtual Voice (2021, Sudan/Qatar, creative documentary, 7 minutes).
  • Al-Sit (2020, Sudan/Qatar, fiction, 20 minutes).
  • Caravan (2016, Sudan/Qatar, fiction, 4 minutes).

Conference Presentations

  • “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.