CIRS Monthly Dialogue: Nationalism in Transition: From the Regional to the Local

Public Lecture with Dr. Zarqa Parvez

The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) hosted Dr. Zarqa Parvez, postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University in Qatar, for a talk titled “Nationalism in Transition: From the Regional to the Local,” which examined how nationalism is defined, constructed, and contested in the Gulf. Dr. Parvez opened by noting that nationalism has become something of a buzzword in the region, its meaning shifting with geopolitics, historical roots, and local context. She was careful to distinguish it from national identity: nationalism, she argued, is not a flag but an ideology, one that binds individuals to the idea of the nation and the state.

Her own framing leans constructivist. A nation, she explained, is best understood as an imagined entity: people construct a sense of common identity with others they will never meet, bound together by what she called emotional legitimacy. This does not mean nations are pure invention. Drawing on the idea that nationalism rises from print-capitalism, she described nations as built with the tools of imagination, even as they retain real roots in ethnic identity. In this view, the nation is the community that connects people to the state, while the state itself, with its territory, constitution, and institutions, traces its intellectual roots to Western thought, particularly the French Revolution and its vision of the people as the center of governance. Asked how she arrived at this framework, Dr. Parvez pointed to her own environment and education, shaped by British and American schooling, and to a broader narrative of “us versus them” that she grew up inside, in a world already pulled apart by conflict.

From there, the talk turned to how nationalism intersects with state-building. Theory, she argued, does not have to be written; it can be built, as part of an ongoing process. She has approached nationalism as something studied from the inside, where the state itself plays a role in co-constructing national identity. Dr. Parvez also raised the question of what a postcolonial lens means for state-building in the Gulf specifically. States in the region, she suggested, have often followed a kind of formula borrowed from European models, templates to be mimicked rather than organically developed. Within that process, she identified culture, women, and children as central constructors of the nation. It is this gap, the absence of a theory that fits the region on its own terms, that she is working to address in her own research, developing a framework built specifically for the Gulf. She was candid that no theory of nationalism will ever be perfect, and said she resists settling for existing explanations that don’t fully account for the region’s realities.

The conversation closed on the effects of migration in the Gulf, and the tension it exposes: as individuals, people have a right to move; as states, sovereignty depends on controlling borders. Immigration, she noted, has long been framed as a danger, reinforcing the same us-versus-them narrative that runs through nationalist discourse, and ongoing conflict, in turn, becomes an opportunity for states to sharpen their own identity.

“War makes states, and states make war,” Dr. Parvez said. “National identity must be remade and reimagined across generations.”

Dr. Zarqa Parvez is a political sociologist and social scientist whose research focuses on the
intersections of statecraft, national identity, society, and youth in the Arab Gulf region. Her
scholarship employs intersectional and post-colonial theoretical frameworks to examine state-
society dynamics through the lens of identity politics, and youth engagement, generating
nuanced understandings of Gulf regional dynamics that transcend conventional narratives. She is
currently a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University in Qatar She has taught several
undergraduate and several graduate seminars including “History, Politics and Culture of the
Middle East,” “Family and Kinship in the Middle East,” and “Nationalism and National Identity
in Gulf” across Georgetown University in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Hamad Bin
Khalifa University, and Lusail University. She previously served as the Doyle Fellow for
Inclusion in the Classroom at Georgetown University in Qatar (2023), where she developed
initiatives supporting diverse and inclusive learning environments.

Her published work includes “Women and Family Friendly Practices in the Workplace,”
“Tribalism and National Identity in the Arab Gulf,” “Women and Politics of Sports in FIFA
2022,” and “Post-colonial Nation Building in Gulf.” She serves as an advisory board member for
HAWWA Journal. She collaborates with UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute on
research related to identity and belonging in Gulf contexts and contributes analysis to outlets
including Middle East Monitor and Al Jazeera, examining Gulf politics, social dynamics,
women’s agency, and national identity formation. She has participated in regional and
international dialogues including Doha Debates, the Othering and Belonging Conference at UC
Berkeley, and collaborative projects with UN Women and regional think tanks.

Gerd Nonneman is Professor of International Relations & Gulf Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), where he served as Dean from 2011 to 2016. He holds a Ph.D in Politics from the University of Exeter, and Licentiates in Oriental Philology (Arabic) and Development Studies from the University of Ghent, Belgium. Prior to his appointment at Georgetown, he served as Professor of International Relations & Middle East Politics, and Al-Qasimi Professor of Gulf Studies, at the University of Exeter, where he also directed the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies and the Centre for Gulf Studies.

A former Executive Director of BRISMES (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), he is Editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies. He has published widely (in12 books and over 50 articles and book chapters) on the politics and international relations of the Gulf and the wider Middle East, on Muslim communities in Europe and on comparative political and economic liberalization. Aside from his academic work, he has worked in the private sector in the Gulf region, and acted as a consultant to a range of companies, NGOs, governments and international institutions.