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SUMMARY:Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine
DESCRIPTION:Dana El Kurd\, Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies\, delivered a CIRS talk on January 13\, 2020\, on the effects that authoritarian strategies have had on polarization and collective action in Palestinian society. The talk was based on her recently published book\, Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine\, which examines the impact of international involvement on political development and state-society relations in the Palestinian territories\, particularly in the deterioration of democratic processes. \n\nEl Kurd explained that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been in power in the Palestinian territories since 1993 (and today\, just in the West Bank). The PA emerged in the mid-nineties out of the Oslo process\, and was meant to serve as an interim government\, to govern until the expected Israeli withdrawal from territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 1999. However\, Israel did not adhere to this agreement. In the meantime\, the PA bureaucracy quickly expanded\, created various security and police forces\, and became the largest employer in the territory under its control. Furthermore\, international organizations became increasingly involved in Palestinian politics\, and external funding strengthened the power of the PA\, entrenching its position. Numerous Palestinian opposition groups arose to challenge the PA’s centralization of power; these included\, for example\, Hamas and other Islamist groups. \n\nSome have argued that the Palestinian Authority has “acted as a ‘subcontractor of repression’ for the Israeli occupation\, in the sense that they police on behalf of the Israeli occupation. They have become a kind of authoritarian indigenous regime overlaid on top of a foreign occupation.” \n\nAccording to El Kurd\, some argue that the PA has “acted as a ‘subcontractor of repression’ for the Israeli occupation\, in the sense that they police on behalf of the Israeli occupation. They have become a kind of authoritarian indigenous regime overlaid on top of a foreign occupation.” The PA has been able to co-opt large segments of the Palestine population and they have increasingly used repression to control people\, she said. Their security apparatus has greatly expanded since 2007\, following the Hamas victory in the 2006 legislative elections (and subsequent removal from power)\, and there is greater coordination with the Israeli occupation. “There have been well-documented increases in torture and arrests\, and limitations on academic and media freedom\,” she said. \n\n“After the Arab Spring\, we saw this sort of rise in polarization and fragmentation\,” and El Kurd examined the conditions that have divided Palestinians and divested them of political power. “We all know that the main goal of authoritarian regimes is to control their populations\, and they utilize different strategies or combinations of strategies\, such as cooptation or repression\,” El Kurd said. However\, regimes target different groups using different strategies\, and she suspected those strategies themselves might be at the root of social polarization in Palestine and a decline in political mobilization. \n\nEl Kurd conducted a survey experiment in the Palestinian territories in conjunction with the Palestine Survey Research Center\, and she held interviews with Palestinian decision makers to collect their views on democracy and accountability to assess the role of international involvement in determining attitudes. She used lab-in-field experiments\, qualitative data\, and statistical analysis with a protest dataset. Her primary research questions were: What is the effect of varying authoritarian strategies on polarization? And\, how does that polarization affect collective action? \n\nHer theoretical argument links authoritarianism and polarization\, and she explained that authoritarian regimes use strategies selectively\, bringing certain groups into the fold while repressing others. While El Kurd argued that authoritarian strategies generate polarization\, she also explained that the type of strategy matters: “cooptation is inclusionary and repression is exclusionary.” Additionally\, she found inclusionary strategies generate polarization to a smaller degree than exclusionary strategies. Consequently\, she argued that the selective nature of authoritarian strategies is a cause of polarization\, translating into a “lack of capacity for collective action through two main mechanisms: insularity within groups\, and grievances between them.” \n\nEl Kurd was able to measure the Palestinian people’s willingness to engage in collective action in various and diversified ways. Her findings indicate that repression strategies lead to a decline in the willingness to engage in collective action\, specifically for what she considers as targeted groups: the Islamists and leftists. This “exclusionary strategy seems to generate less willingness to cooperate” than the cooptation strategy. \n\nEl Kurd found that exclusionary strategies had the greatest effect on behavior\, with repression causing polarization in society. “In the Palestine case\, this helps to explain why different groups—who might have similar ideas about the Palestinian Authority\, and similar ideas about the occupation—are not coordinating properly\, and they seem to be unable to surmount these coordination problems.” She also explained that this finding applies to dynamics in the broader Arab world\, where authoritarian governments have had similar effects on societal cohesion. \n\nDana El Kurd is a Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies\, and Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in the Critical Security Studies program. She specializes in comparative politics and international relations. She has published in Foreign Affairs\, The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog\, Al-Araby al-Jadeed\, and academic journals such as Parameters\, Journal of Global Security Studies\, Contemporary Arab Affairs\, Middle East Law and Governance\, and the Journal of Arabian Studies\, among others. She is the author of the Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine (Hurst and Oxford University Press\, 2020). \n\nArticle by Chaïmaa Benkermi (Class of 2021)\, Publications Fellow
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/polarized-and-demobilized-legacies-authoritarianism-palestine/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200114T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200114T140000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224941
CREATED:20200227T065819Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210610T073828Z
UID:10001428-1579003200-1579010400@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:CURA Open House
DESCRIPTION:On January 14\, 2020\, CIRS hosted its first open house event for GU-Q students to learn more about CIRS and the CURA program for undergraduate research advancement. The CIRS Undergraduate Research Advancement program (CURA) aims to facilitate research opportunities for GU-Q undergraduate students through providing focused mentorship and a chance to publish and present their original research as part of the CURA Paper Series and CURA Lunch Talks. \n \n \nDuring the event\, Professor Mehran Kamrava\, Director of CIRS highlighted that two years ago\, CIRS launched the CURA program to advance undergraduate research. He remarked that\, “the aim of the program is to enhance the research skills of our students and we do that by offering number of opportunities for our Fellows and for the entire student body.” \n \n \nOne aim of CURA is to enhance the undergraduate experience by helping students develop a range of research skills and publish their original research. To this end\, Elizabeth Wanucha\, Operations Manager of CIRS announced a new opportunity for GU-Q students under the ongoing CURA Paper Series. The CURA Paper Series opened a paper competition that will span the Spring 2020 semester\, with a submission deadline of February 12\, 2020. She added\, “the winner of this competition will be coached by CIRS staff through the peer review and editorial process to publish the paper by the end of the semester as a distinguished publication under the CURA Paper Series.” The winner will also be issued an electronic certificate that highlights the achievement on LinkedIn and other social media sites. \n \n \n“The aim of the program is to enhance the research skills of our students and we do that by offering number of opportunities for our Fellows and for the entire student body.” \n \n \nNgoc Nguyen (class of 2021) said that she enjoyed meeting the staff of CIRS at the open house. “It was a great opportunity to learn about research opportunities that CIRS is providing for Georgetown students. I will definitely participate in more CIRS events in the future.” \n \n \nIn addition to the paper competition\, GU-Q students also have the opportunity to showcase their original research by submitting it for consideration to the CURA Paper Series. The process of selecting papers is rigorous and competitive. CIRS has a wide network of scholars\, and publishing with the CURA Paper Series will disseminate the selected research across the globe. CIRS publishes the CURA Papers online\, prints and distributes the hard copies\, and disseminates the research via the CIRS research e-newsletter. \n \n \nCIRS also helps GU-Q undergraduate students develop skills related to research through its CURA fellowship program. CURA Fellows provide research assistance in three areas: publications\, research and administration. Through the CURA peer mentorship program\, fellows learn hands-on about the research field and develop analytical skills by convening one seminar each semester on a current CIRS research project. Fellows are invited to discuss papers written by experts in their respective fields\, and share their conclusions with the authors of the papers in the CIRS Working Group organized around that research project. \n \n \nChaïmaa Benkermi (class of 2021)\, a CIRS publications fellow said\, “Having been part of CIRS for two years has been continuously rewarding. I have acquired unique skills that I have come to apply in all fields and disciplines\, developed new research interests\, and simply gained more confidence in what I do and what I deliver to others\, which is also part of my CURA fellowship experience.” \n \n \n  \n \n \nArticle by Shaza Afifi (Class of 2022)\, CURA Publications Fellow 
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/cura-open-house/
CATEGORIES:Student Engagement
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200119T090000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200120T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224941
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SUMMARY:Big Data in the Middle East Roundtable
DESCRIPTION:On January 19-20\, 2020\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) hosted a Research Roundtable on Big Data in the Middle East. The meeting was held in order to generate an initial conversation on how big data can be meaningfully applied to deepen our understanding of social and political phenomena in the Middle East. With the growing availability and amount of different data and the enhanced capacity of data scientists to use computational tools for analysis\, social scientists around the world are increasingly turning to big data to address some of their fields of research. How far these innovative developments in research are being demonstrated in the Middle East and how social science research questions can be explored through these new data sources and analytical tools was the primary purpose of this roundtable. Over the course of two days\, participating scholars and experts engaged in a fruitful dialogue that explored several important areas\, including: big data and healthcare\, social media and user-generated content\, analyzing data produced in Arabic language\, social science research\, food security\, big data and museums\, opportunities in the defense sector\, female employment as well as religious discourse on social media and hate speech. \n\nThe discussion was initiated by Dr. Ingmar Weber\, Research Director for Social Computing at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI). Dr. Weber’s presentation was centered on the topic of changing demographic trends in the Middle East and big data applications to measure these changes. Using Facebook as a platform for accessing user data and using various variables such as places lived and mobile phones used\, it was reasoned that researchers could collect data on wealth distribution and income level of the users. These variables can also be used to extract data from other platforms like Twitter and Snapchat to get demographic data. This\, in turn\, can be used to track\, International migration\, Poverty\, and digital gender gaps. The online digital platforms provide access to over 2 billion users\, and the data can be used to address traditional attributes like interest\, as well as understand the selection bias of users. However\, there are limitations to this as models for bias correction are required and only include people that are online. For future research\, a number of topics were identified that included interdisciplinary research efforts\, conducting surveys to collect data from hard to reach population\, and the use of satellite imagery to get onsite data. \n\nChiara Bernardi then steered the conversation to user-generated content and social impact. It was stated that social data is intervened with social behavior\, and this creates essential knowledge and meaning. The social impact of these can be used to drive policies and legislation. Marketing is one industry where the relevance of this content is widely used; however\, there are limits to this. There is a need to understand how this influences the strategy\, and mixed frameworks are needed to interact with the industry data with the academics settings. In order to bridge the gap and understand what we can learn from user-generated content\, a methodological framework in the Middle East is required. The term big data also needed a clear definition in terms of its volume. Content generated from multiple languages requires mapping and visualizing in order to understand the impact on behavior. Academics need to recognize the role and\, at the same time\, bridge the gaps in order to contextualize behavior on digital media. The structure of the platform and design was also highlighted as an essential component as it leads to different behaviors. \n\nChallenges to analyze data produced in Arabic was next discussed by Wajdi Zaghouani\, who stated that data in Arabic is becoming more and more available\, and that data is the new oil. However\, analyzing this data is difficult\, as Arabic is a very challenging language. There is a lot of ambiguity and variation in the written and spoken format of the language\, which requires new processing tools. In addition\, the romanization of the language also poses a problem when it comes to processing. It was stated that there was a need for tools to separate the noisy data and convert it into a usable format. Fine graining of tools to analyze dialects and less commonly used Arabic variety was also highlighted as a key area. Speech processing and lack of concentrated collaboration of researchers were also identified as gaps. Zaghouani also identified the detection of hate speech\, polarization\, and sarcasm as an understudied area that requires further research. \n\nZahir Irani looked at the topic of food security and big data in the Middle East and argued that much attention has been paid to the food waste from the plate\, but very little to food lost during the supply chain. It was argued that food security was a challenge around both availability and accessibility and that efforts were needs that maintain the sustainability of food production and less fluctuation on the viability. It is estimated that our food needs over the next 40 years will be greater than in the past 10\,000 years. This is attributed to a number of factors\, including food waste and loss\, and an increase in the global population.  Science and technology can be to understand the issues at hand. New technology and geological surveys can present a better picture of the physical environment and lead to increased food production. Irani highlighted that some of the drivers of food (in)security include population\, income\, water supply\, food supply\, soil erosion\, imports\, wastages\, yields\, demands\, seasonality\, consumption\, safety and nutrition\, and health wellbeing. The question of feeding future generations has become a global challenge and safeguarding food disruption\, and consumption through circular economy principles requires quality big data. \n\nThe participants then discussed the topic of big data and healthcare in the Middle East. Mowafa Househ highlighted 3 core research areas; privacy and responsibility\, the cultural and religious dimension of collecting data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data. AI has huge impacts on healthcare. Computing power and data being generated has changed the way healthcare is practiced\, diagnosed\, and cured. Narrow AI and better performing computers can help gain insight into different populations of different social and physical conditions. However\, this data can help detect correlation but not the causation. In terms of privacy laws\, countries like Saudi Arabia\, Qatar\, and Bahrain have certain policies in place however state still have access to the health data of the people\, even with the implementation of privacy laws. What the state can do with the data and what kind of approach can be taken\, is a question that needs further examination. Many countries in the Middle East have a multiple-tier system that separates the people. Data is collected and disseminated differently from different groups (citizens and residents)\, which leads to missing data points. How do academics apply ethical frameworks where there is no discrimination among the various groups and what are the values that you put into the algorithm\, were some of the research gaps identified? Culture and religious sensitivities also need to be taken into consideration when it comes to health data collection in the Middle East. Engaging the local stakeholders and policymakers and involving them in the conversation was also highlighted as a critical area for future research. \n\nLisa Singh addressed different ways big data can benefit social science research and stated that there are different kinds of big data that can be used. Currently\, every discipline has its own methodology\, and there is a need for more integrated ways to use these big data. Researchers need to study big data as a field rather than independently for various case studies. Another area highlighted where big data and social science could collaborate was early warning mechanisms\, which are technically challenging\, and lacks strong political will. Currently\, researchers lack a more holistic picture of the methodology required\, which stresses the need for integration of data and various ways that it can be brought together. \n\nThe participants also discussed social media and religious discourse in the Arab region. Walid Magdy presented examples of how big data is helping answer questions in social sciences. One of the studies conducted included looking at people’s opinions and the change in perception due to major events and trends.  It was highlighted that results from the study indicated that global change in trends does not mean change in individual opinion. In regards to religion and social media\, a case study conducted emphasized that many users used social media platforms to have discussions on topics such as atheism\, share positive tweets about Islam and religion in general and re-share or re-post tweets as a form of ongoing charity.  There is a need to complement these findings with anthropological studies\, and innovation and technology are required for sentiment analysis\, especially for data generated in Arabic. Social media is vast and represents many people\, which in turn presents many opportunities to measure user behavior but requires the collaboration of social and computer scientists. \n\nMarc Owen Jones broadened the discussion on social media by addressing the question of hate speech and propaganda. Jones addressed the issue of data weaponization and colonization\, platform manipulation\, and the notion of ethics. There are different approaches to data collected from diverse sources; this data can be used to gauge audience usage and behavior on social media. In many of the previously observed cases\, hate speech tends to be controlled by automated bot accounts. This leads to the question of who has the power to manipulate the data and how a small number of people have the influence to shape the discussion on social media. In addition\, the question of how data is weaponized to promote certain political views and ideas that are held by a group of people and not the general public needs examination. Other areas for future study involve examining the political economy of the technological companies\, governance of platforms\, and integrity and quality of the data. \n\nGeorgios Papoaiannou shifted the focus of discussion to big data and museums and emphasized that museums collect a large amount of data on a daily basis. This data can be used to address some of the challenges and implications of big data and museums. When it comes to big data and museums\, there is more than one reality and a number of issues that need academic focus. Qatar museum authority opened 4 new museums in the past 5 years. These institutes generate data on a daily basis that can be used to address ways to help make these museums better in various ways. One of the research areas identified was the need for data-driven museums and policies through which correct and meaningful information could be collected. Papoaiannou also stressed addressing sentiment via textual or image data and the pros and cons of doing this\, as a gap in the existing literature. \n\nEid Mohamed analyzed Egyptian culture through big data and looked at the question of whether Egyptians still cared about the Arab Spring. The cultural data can provide evidence of growing revolutionary consciousness in the general masses. Most excitingly\, an analysis of such great masses of source material offers the research community the opportunity to work on the challenge of discovering the appropriate epistemologies for coming to terms with emergent transcultural identities and a transformed Arab world in the making. Digital humanities\, in general\, offer a new set of methods for dealing with such an abundance of materials. The Arab Spring needs to be explored through an approach of localizing the change by using local stories. The pre-2011 context of significance concerns earlier moments when popular resistance came to the fore\, moments that 2011 has been considered to be a continuation of or inspired by. These can be traced to the writings of Taha Hussein and other revolutionary writers. Computational tools are required to analyze the vast body of corpora as well as online and offline activism. \n\nThe dialogue then moved to the discussion of big data and female labor in Turkey. Gunes Asik stated that female employment is essential for development and that big data is not just user-generated data but also can mean large administrative data. This includes population data kept by the government in time series. Though this data is reliable\, it is very difficult to access as government approval is required. Female employment and labor demand\, in general\, is affected by a number of factors\, including discrimination\, government policies\, and the emergence of new sectors. Some of the determinants of female employment include education\, conservatism\, child and elderly care\, health\, and lack of social protection. Asik identified a number of research gaps\, such as the impact of informal employment\, the effect of domestic violence\, and using Google search and social media to collect the data\, as well as the automation of jobs and its impact on different genders. \n\nCharbel Chedrawi talked about opportunities for big data in the defense sector and detailed that defense data is a black box. Data for this sector is not easily accessible\, and there are very few scholars working on the topic. Big data is the strategic assets of the 21st century and is a valuable raw material for security and defense. However\, there are certain barriers in generating and applying this data\, including infrastructure\, human barriers\, such as lack of IT professionals in the organization\, and lack of proper training and financial barrier\, as budget is allocated mainly to weapons rather than research and development. Chedrawi identified 5 areas of further study; identifying the resource gaps in defense sector and the limitations associated with it; the hazards of outsourcing; isomorphism of the institutions; the type of technology required for mining the data and the role of big data in reducing the transaction cost and how can the defense sector benefit from such economies. \n\nAs a general takeaway\, the roundtable discussions indicated that for social scientists studying the Middle East who want to use new data sources\, it is of fundamental importance that they bridge the disciplinary divide and develop partnerships with data scientists. In order to make the best use of the variety of new data available and apply them to critical social sciences research questions in the region\, there is a need to actively develop interdisciplinary collaborations. Working with data scientists who have the requisite expertise in data analytics will help social scientists make sense of and extract meaning from data from multiple sources. Moving forward with the discussions at this roundtable CIRS plans to launch a research project in the near future with a thematic focus on some of the core issue(s) and big data in the Middle East. \n\n  \nFor the roundtable agenda\, click here.	For the research initiative\, click here.\nParticipants and Discussants: \nShaza Afifi\, Georgetown University in Qatar	Gunes Asik\, TOBB Economics and Technology University	Zahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	Mongoljin Batsaikhan\, Georgetown University in Qatar	Chiara Bernardi\, University of Stirling	Chaïmaa Benkermi\, Georgetown University in Qatar	Misba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	Charbel Chedrawi\, Saint Joseph University 	Salma Hassabou\, Georgetown University in Qatar	Mowafa Housef\, Hamad Bin Khalifa University 	Zahir Irani\, University of Bradford 	Marc Owen Jones\, Hamad Bin Khalifa University 	Mehran Kamrava\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	Walid Magdy\, University of Edinburgh 	Eid Mohamed\, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies	Emad Mohamed\, University of Wolverhampton 	Phoebe Musandu\, Georgetown University in Qatar	Georgios Papaioannou\, University College of London- Qatar	Khushboo Shah\, Georgetown University in Qatar	Lisa Singh\, Georgetown University 	Elizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	Ingmar Weber\, Qatar Computing Research Institute	Wajdi Zaghouani\, Hamad Bin Khalifa University\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/big-data-middle-east-roundtable/
CATEGORIES:Focused Discussions,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200123T123000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200123T160000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200114T063247Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210610T073816Z
UID:10001424-1579782600-1579795200@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:CURA Workshop: Evaluating Credibility: Sources for Academic Research
DESCRIPTION:On January 23\, 2020\, CIRS hosted a CURA workshop titled\, “Evaluating Credibility: Sources for Academic Research\,” with GU-Q Professor Jim Reardon-Anderson and Librarian Paschalia Terzi. The workshop was focused on scholarly resource analysis and determining the authenticity of sources for research projects. Professor Anderson led the workshop and outlined some of his preferred techniques in determining the authenticity and validity of the sources. The workshop’s interactive nature made it a valuable learning experience. Furthermore\, students gained substantial research strategy skills by engaging in this professional and encouraging environment. \n \n \nProfessor Anderson’s primary experience and scholarly insight further added to the meaningfulness of the workshop. He underlined how the right sources build on the internal validity and reliability and help strengthen the quality of the research project. Borrowing from his rich career experiences\, Professor Anderson shared how he\, as a researcher and historian\, uses primary and secondary sources for his research projects. He outlined the necessity of a detail-oriented analysis to the research process\, which benefited the students and encouraged them to be reflective of their own research experiences. His reflection prompted the students to understand the limitations of their research process and how to overcome some of the hurdles faced. \n \n \n“The most useful and inspiring part of the workshop was Prof. Anderson’s personal description of what a researcher’s life is really like.” – Hussam Aitelqadi\, sophomore at GU-Q. \n \n \nEngaging with Professor Anderson\, students questioned on how to accommodate the variety of sources available; for example\, how to engage with multimedia resources such as newspapers\, magazines\, websites\, and social media platforms\, was one of the quires raised. Professor Anderson narrated how intersectional mediums and methods can boost one’s research and how students can benefit from the vast resources the Georgetown library provides. Hussam Aitelqadi\, a sophomore at GU-Q who attended the workshop\, commented on how participating in the workshop was an enriching learning experience. He reflected that\, “the most useful and inspiring part of the workshop was Prof. Anderson’s personal description of what a researcher’s life is really like.” Another student\, Jawaher Al-Sulaiti\, also reflected on how the workshop helped her to gain a “better understanding of the tools of evaluation.” \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \nIn the second half of the session\, GU-Q Librarian Paschali Terzi led the workshop through an interactive exercise. Building on Professor Anderson’s valuable insight\, Paschalia showed students how to apply their practical learnings from the workshop. Students engaged with scholarly material and used a template to determine the credibility of the source. This was facilitated by accessing journals available on research databases and analyzing how social media can be used as part of research. This hands-on activity solidified the workshop experience; by immediately applying what they learned\, students were able to practice new skills and receive feedback on their work from CIRS Staff and Paschalia. All in all\, this workshop aimed at improving the overall research process of Georgetown University in Qatar’s undergraduate students. \n \n \nArticle by Khushboo Shah\, CURA Administrative Fellow
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/cura-workshop-evaluating-credibility-sources-academic-research/
CATEGORIES:Student Engagement
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200127T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200127T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200212T061545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210829T134653Z
UID:10001425-1580148000-1580153400@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Qatari Cases before International Dispute Settlement Fora
DESCRIPTION:On January 27\, 2020\, Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi\, Dean of the College of Law at Qatar University\, presented a talk at CIRS\, Qatari Cases before International Dispute Settlement Fora\, concerning legal actions following the blockade against Qatar that began on June 5\, 2017. On that date\, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)\, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)\, the Kingdom of Bahrain\, and Egypt severed diplomatic relations and cut off direct communications with Qatar. Al-Khulaifi outlined the ways in which the four countries have taken coercive measures against Qatar and Qataris that are in contravention of their obligations under international treaties to which they are parties. \n\nAl-Khulaifi said the State of Qatar has sought legal remedies and instituted proceedings against the four states using various international dispute settlement mechanisms. Three of the major cases currently pending are at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)\, and are based on: the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Racial Discrimination (CERD)\, the Convention on International Civil Aviation\, and International Air Services Transit Agreement. In addition\, there are two inter-state complaints before the CERD Committee. Additionally\, there are two cases concerning trade that are currently pending before the World Trade Organization (WTO). \n\nThe first case that Al-Khulaifi discussed was filed by Qatar against the UAE under the CERD Convention\, which deals with matters of human rights. Qatar brought the case against only the UAE because of the four blockading states\, only the UAE recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICJ under this Convention. In this case\, Qatar alleges that the UAE’s actions—for example\, expelling Qatari citizens from the UAE—were based on national origin and therefore the UAE violated its obligations under the CERD. The Convention protects a number of rights including: prohibition on collective expulsion\, the obligation to condemn racial hatred and incitement\, the right to equal treatment before tribunals\, the right to marriage and choice of spouse\, and the right to own private property. These rights are outlined in Article 5 of the Convention\, and Al-Khulaifi said\, “We believe strongly that the UAE has clearly violated those rights.” \n\n“Never has a country decided to submit a complaint in front of a United Nations human-rights treaty body against another state\,” he said. “And I am glad that the case Qatar v. KSA is number one in history; and number two is Qatar v. UAE.” \n\nAdditionally\, Qatar requested provisional measures before the ICJ on June 5\, 2018\, to receive an urgent order from the court “to preserve the rights of its nationals or the rights of the country itself.” The legal team successfully received the court’s approval for the provisional measures that ensured that families separated by the UAE’s measures were reunited; gave Qatari students the option of completing their education in the UAE\, or at least access their necessary records; and allowed Qataris to access UAE courts and tribunals. A fourth measure required “both parties must refrain from any action that may aggravate the dispute during the proceedings of the case.” That the court found in favor of Qatar on these measures was a “clear rebuke of the unlawful discriminatory measures adopted by the UAE\,” Al-Khulaifi said. \n\nIn March 2019\, the UAE submitted its own request for provisional measures\, which was an unconventional step and served to delay the process. However\, the UAE’s request was rejected by the court in June 2019\, Al-Khulaifi said. \n\nThe cases that are before the CERD Committee are conciliation procedures and concern racial discrimination. Qatar has filed two communications against the UAE and KSA. It is worth noting that the case against KSA could not be sent to the ICJ\, Al-Khulaifi said\, “Because Saudi Arabia decided\, purposefully\, to make a reservation to Article 22 of the CERD\, so we could not follow that path.” He noted that this is the first filing of its kind in history. “Never has a country decided to submit a complaint in front of a United Nations human-rights treaty body against another state\,” he said. “And I am glad that the case Qatar v. KSA is number one in history; and number two is Qatar v. UAE.” In August 2019\, the CERD Committee decided to accept the jurisdiction and look at the two communications submitted by the State of Qatar; the cases is still pending. \n\nConcerning the matter of civil aviation\, the four blockading states have prevented Qatari airlines from flying over their territories\, and also landing and taking off from their airports. “Those are clear violations of the Convention on International Civil Aviation\,” he said. After receiving  decisions from the ICAO Council confirming that it has jurisdiction to examine the merits of the cases\, the four blockading states decided to appeal those decisions before the ICJ\, “which will soon decide on these matters\, and hopefully\, will send the cases back to the ICAO Council. Then\, the ICAO Council will examine the merits of our complaints\,” he said. \n\nIn conclusion\, Al-Khulaifi addressed the trade violations within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). “Part of those coercive measures adopted by the four states—but more specifically the three neighboring states—is to simply prevent import\, export\, sale\, purchase\, license\, transfer\, and all types of commercial deals with the State of Qatar\,” he said. Qatar filed  complaints against Bahrain\, KSA\, and UAE arguing violations related to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)\, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)\, and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). An additional separate case was filed against the KSA over intellectual property rights violations concerning copyright infringement\, and more specifically\, piracy of the content of beIN Sport. \n\nAs far as the case against the UAE before the ICJ is concerned\, hearings on preliminary objections will take place soon. Al-Khulaifi said the hearings would be broadcast on the UNTV website. “We expect that a few months after the hearings\, the Court will make its final decision on the jurisdiction of the case. \n\nMohammed Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi is Dean of the College of Law and Associate Professor of commercial law at Qatar University. He is a member of several academic and professional committees in Qatar\, including the Permanent Legislative Committee of the Council of Ministers. He has received numerous awards and fellowships\, including His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani\, The Emir of Qatar\, Ph.D. Award (Education Excellence Award\, 2012). In parallel with his academic activities\, Al-Khulaifi is a lawyer at Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi law firm and serves as an independent adjudicator at the Qatar Financial Center\, in Regulatory Authority. He acts as legal counsel to HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar\, and he was appointed as the Agent of the State of Qatar before the International Court of Justice. His research and practice focus on commercial law\, and he has authored numerous articles and books on bankruptcy\, mergers and acquisitions\, commercial law\, banking transactions\, and arbitration. \n\n  \n\nArticle by Chaïmaa Benkermi (Class of 2021)\, CURA Publications Fellow
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/qatari-cases-international-dispute-settlement-fora/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200215T090000
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DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200308T104243Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072654Z
UID:10001430-1581757200-1581865200@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Economic Migration to the United States Roundtable
DESCRIPTION:On February 15-16\, 2020\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) held a Research Roundtable on the topic of Economic Migration to the United States with the purpose to deepen our understanding of the challenges and opportunities of skilled immigration flows to the U.S. OECD countries\, and\, until fairly recently\, the U.S. have developed their migration policies and systems to attract skilled and highly-skilled migrants. With the last major immigration legislation being enacted 30 years ago\, it is a worthwhile endeavor to analyze the current policy environment and lived experiences of skilled migrants in the U.S. Over the course of two days\, participating scholars and experts engaged in a dynamic conversation that explored several important areas\, including: transnational migration patterns to the U.S.\, categories of mobility\, migration policy and reform\, national security and migration\, international student dynamics\, and integration and political mobilization of specific migrant populations. \n\nSilvia Pedraza\, Professor of Sociology and American Culture at the University of Michigan\, Ann Arbor\, started the conversation by presenting the economic\, political\, and social aspects of transnationalism\, as practiced by immigrants in their home and host countries. Instant communication has made an enormous impact on the lives of immigrants\, helping them to remain connected to their families and community in their home countries. A particularly interesting phenomenon for the Cuban community is the emerging economic markets that have sprung up with the lifting of U.S. embargo against Cuba. Dr. Pedraza questions how increasing transnationalism and easier communication with the home country has affected the assimilation of Cuban immigrants\, and whether it comes at a social or cultural cost to society. \n\nThere are many complex categories of immigration visas to the U.S. Payal Banerjee\, Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology at Smith College\, challenged the participants to consider that the status of highly-skilled migrants is just as precarious as that of low-skilled migrants. Though the common assumption is that low-skilled migrants are more vulnerable than highly-skilled migrants\, the dependence on an employer\, university\, or family member for their legal status produces an unstable situation for highly-skilled migrants. Their status is conditional and terminable at any point\, which could be to the benefit of the employer to keep wages low and the workforce flexible. The divide between documented and undocumented\, skilled and unskilled\, can be challenged when considering that all migrants exist in a state of precarity. Dr. Banerjee argued that immigration and migration policies will need to adapt to the labor ecology of the future\, given the trends pointing towards AI\, automation\, and the use of algorithms in the sectors that are heavily reliant on skilled labor. \n\nContinuing on the theme of immigration policy reform\, Katharine Donato\, the Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration and Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University\, led the group through a discussion on the paradoxical way U.S. government administrations have approached reform. Immigration law has not changed since 1990\, but rather\, adjustments have been made on an ad-hoc basis through presidential orders and executive actions. On one hand\, management of immigration policy by executive order is destabilizing for labor migrants\, but it also allows for flexibility for this area where it is difficult to get calibrate the policy in a way that works for all stakeholders. This instability also impacts employers\, who find it difficult to match their need with the supply of visas for highly-skilled migrants. \n\nWork towards matching labor flow with employers needs was also a topic under the discussion led by Lindsay Lowell\, Adjunct Research Professor in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Senior Affiliate at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)\, in the context of workplace mobility for highly-skilled migrants in the U.S. The STEM field is uniquely interesting in this regard and more research is needed to understand how the immigration system could be better organized to meet the need for STEM workers. Dr. Lowell also put forward for discussion the interplay between higher education and immigration. Many universities develop specific programs designed to attract international students\, who are a large funding source for universities. Students may come to study in the U.S. expecting that after graduation they will be able to easily transfer to a H-1B visa and find employment. But in reality\, this is often not the case. \n\nElizabeth Ferris\, Research Professor at Georgetown University in the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)\, led a discussion on the concept of national security in the U.S. as it relates to migration. The relationship between the two\, she argued\, largely depends on how national security is defined. According to Dr. Ferris\, for those traditionalists who view national security as primarily protecting borders\, immigration — both legal and unauthorized — tends to be viewed as a potential threat to U.S. national interests. Others take a broader view of national security to include concepts important to human security. Those who take this view tend to see immigration to the U.S. in terms of long-term economic interests and the soft power of the U.S. Though there is a lot of research on immigration in the context of national security\, more work needs to be done bridging the gap between these two parallel views of the topic. \n\nThe U.S. has historically been one of the key focal points attracting international students. Terry Wotherspoon\, Professor of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan\, led a discussion on the intentions and ability of international students to stay in the U.S. once their education is completed. General trends suggest that a majority of international students have a strong preference to stay in the country of study. Yet fewer than half of those actually end up staying. There can be many reasons behind why students leave despite their wanting to stay\, but there is not much evidence to draw strong conclusions. Dr. Wotherspoon argued that as source countries like India and China are going through important labor market\, demographic\, and technological changes\, it is important to understand the implication for international student mobility and settlement in the U.S. and the long-term political economy of the higher education field. \n\nOn the second day of the Research Roundtable\, the discussion shifted towards looking at economic migration of specific ethnic groups to the U.S. Michael Ewers\, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte\, opened the day by leading a conversation on skilled migration to the U.S. from the Middle East. For this population\, it is interesting to consider migration in the context of securitization\, economic benefits\, and perceptions of the security threat of migrants. Though the economic and financial impact of immigration in the U.S. is not well-known and widely debated\, what is certain is that large Middle Eastern immigrant populations are settling in large cities in the U.S. that are trending towards population loss\, such as Chicago\, Los Angeles\, and New York. What this could mean for these cities’ economic markets is an interesting area of research. \n\nMigration flows to the U.S. from Latin America in the past have been largely low-skilled\, but since 2007\, the education levels and English language skills of migrants have increased. René Zenteno\, Professor of Demography at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)\, led the participants in a discussion on the experiences of undocumented highly-skilled migrants from Latin America. There are more highly-skilled migrants in the flow of undocumented migrants than before\, and whether or not they have legal status may impact the ability of the migrant to integrate into the labor market. Highly-skilled Hispanic migrants also experience of workplace discrimination to a greater extent than non-Hispanic highly-skilled migrants\, which may also be related to their legal status. The transference of foreign credentials to the U.S. often creates a skill-job mismatch for Latin American migrants who may be highly qualified in their home country\, but must take positions in the U.S. that require less qualification due to the non-recognition of their foreign credentials. \n\nThe final two sessions of the Research Roundtable discussed the experiences of Asian migrants to the U.S. Sangay Mishra\, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Drew University\, opened a discussion on the political mobilization of South Asian immigrants\, by Indian communities in particular. A unique characteristic of the Indian immigrant population is that the vast majority are foreign-born\, not second generation. Indian immigrants are the third-largest immigrant group in the U.S.\, yet at least 50 percent of Indian immigrants are not U.S. citizens and are on other visa types than just the H-1B visa category. For this community\, the parameters of the H4 dependent visa has been an important area of political mobilization. In particular\, lobbying groups have taken up the issue of the right of H4 dependent migrants to work\, and push for immigration reform in this area. The overwhelming percentage of highly educated women who are in this category forms a unique sub-group of the Indian immigrant population that deserves further examination. \n\nMin Zhou\, Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies\, Walter and Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in US-China Relations and Communications\, and Director of the Asia Pacific Center at the University of California\, Los Angeles\, continued the discussion in a comparison of the Indian and Chinese highly-skilled migrants in Los Angeles\, California. In terms of visa categories\, Indian immigrants mostly migrate to the U.S. on the H-1B visa. For Chinese immigrants\, the majority of migrants come on a student visa and then adjust to the H-1B category. Yet\, Chinese are the overwhelming majority of the recipients of EB-5 investment visas. The integration patterns of these communities are diverse based on education and profession. Those Chinese migrants who have higher socioeconomic characteristics on arrival seem to integrate much more quickly than others. As the non-Hispanic White population in the U.S. continues to lose the numerical majority\, Dr. Zhou suggests that perhaps the power dynamics between races and migrants/non-migrants could shift. \n\nThere are several overall themes coming out of the two days of discussion\, including: the precarity of immigrants in the U.S.\, across the skill spectrum; the increasing difficulty with which rigid visa categories can accurately match skilled labor with market needs\, especially in the STEM fields; and the long-term career trajectories\, workplace mobility\, and settlement opportunities for highly-skilled migrants and international students\, especially at the intersection of higher education and immigration policies. Immigrant experiences across all nationalities are influenced by gender and generational aspects\, especially when it comes to immigrant families and the ability to integrate into the local labor market. More highly-skilled migrants are undocumented than before\, and their experiences of labor market and social integration and discrimination are important areas for future study. \n\nCIRS plans to follow on from this roundtable with a more in-depth research project on the topic of economic migration to the U.S. in order to better understand these questions. \n\n  \nFor the roundtable agenda\, click here.		\nFor the participants’ biographies\, click here. \n\n\n		For the research initiative\, click here.\nParticipants and Discussants: \nZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	Payal Banerjee\, Smith College	Katharine M. Donato\, Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) – Georgetown University	Michael Ewers\, University of North Carolina at Charlotte	Elizabeth Ferris\, Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) – Georgetown University	Mehran Kamrava\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	B. Lindsay Lowell\, Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) – Georgetown University	Sangay Mishra\, Drew University	Silvia Pedraza\, University of Michigan\, Ann Arbor	Elizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar	Terry Wotherspoon\, University of Saskatchewan	René Zenteno\, The University of Texas at San Antonio	Min Zhou\, University of California\, Los Angeles\nArticle by Elizabeth Wanucha\, Operations Manager at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/economic-migration-united-states-roundtable/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Focused Discussions,Race & Society
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200225T124500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200225T134500
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200304T121940Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T094330Z
UID:10001429-1582634700-1582638300@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Fascism 2.0: Lessons from Democracy in India
DESCRIPTION:Uday Chandra\, Assistant Professor of Government at GU-Q\, presented on “Fascism 2.0: Lessons from Democracy in India” at a CIRS event on February 25\, 2020. The talk drew on his book in progress\, Fascism 2.0\, which traces how and why India’s heterogeneous\, multi-ethnic\, multi-religious society has been recast under modern democratic conditions as a homogeneous\, mono-cultural\, mono-religious polity. Since the 1980s\, the rights and freedoms of religious minorities\, particularly Christians and Muslims\, have eroded steadily with the rise of Hindu nationalism\, a movement among the growing middle classes who see Indian society in majoritarian terms as essentially Hindu. \n\nChandra’s forthcoming book is concerned with what others today call populism. He points to the global rise of fascism\, which\, he argued\, parallels the inter-war period in Europe. Chandra suggested revisiting the “triad of global ideologies—liberalism\, socialism\, fascism\,” which goes back to the contradictory French revolutionary slogan of “liberty\, equality\, fraternity\,” in order to understand the interactions between these ideologies over the past century. By historicizing the politics of the present and using the case of India\, he teases out a set of broad comparative generalizations. \n\nThe book’s title\, Fascism 2.0\, reveals both continuities and changes within fascism\, particularly its adaptation to our age of “digital capitalism.” One of Chandra’s objectives is to identify the relationship between fascism and democracy. Non-democracies such as China or Saudi Arabia are unlikely to evolve into fascist regimes\, he suggests\, because popular sovereignty or the rule of the people is not vital to the functioning of these polities. By comparison\, it is possible to identify conditions that favor the collapse of the liberal order at home and abroad and triggers the turn towards fascism. \n\n“Fascism seemed more promising to ruling elites because it combined socialism’s antipathy to the old ruling classes with a nationalist vision that promised real change for all.” \n\nThe liberal international order\, established after World War II\, was organized around free markets\, multilateral institutions\, and liberal democracy. While this project brought economic prosperity and political freedoms to some\, especially in the West\, it also led to inequalities within these societies and worldwide. Today\, we face new political realities with the rise of “a new breed of illiberal politicians” such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán\, who claim to represent ordinary voters better than career politicians. Chandra argued that there are lessons to be learned from India’s democratic experience under Prime Minister Narendra Modi\, who was first elected in 2014. “These lessons concern how democracy sans liberalism—the new global norm—can be hijacked by ‘fascism 2.0\,’ even as we must not lose sight of the ways in which democracy can be restored to a healthy\, competitive state.” \n\nChandra observed that\, a century ago\, fascism emerged in Europe in response to the failures of Western liberal elites to spread the vast economic benefits of imperialism throughout their societies. Socialism\, by contrast\, pitted social classes against each other. Fascism seemed more promising to ruling elites because “it combined socialism’s antipathy to the old ruling classes with a nationalist vision that promised real change for all.” Fascism thus combined socialism and ethno-nationalism to offer a modern agenda of mass education\, public works\, and national rejuvenation. “It is easy to forget today that fascism was astonishingly successful in its own terms\,” Chandra said. \n\nIn postcolonial India\, Chandra explained\, democracy began as “a gift of well-meaning upper-caste Hindus to the masses.” The Congress party\, which led the anticolonial struggle under Gandhi and Nehru\, dominated national politics in India in the 1950s and 1960s. The party reflected the country’s highly diverse polity and emphasized “unity in diversity” within a federal framework. In the mid-1970s\, however\, “democracy was suspended” by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after global oil shocks and a rising tide of youthful and left-wing protests. Political opponents were imprisoned\, elections suspended\, and civil liberties curtailed. Although this authoritarian turn lasted just a year and a half\, Chandra suggested that the embryo of fascism emerged in Indian politics: personalized rule\, militarism\, the primacy of the state over the economy\, and empty promises of national renewal. \n\nAfter the assassination of Indira Gandhi\, Chandra explained\, the Indian state underwent a crisis of legitimacy\, which has been steadily resolved via the rise of Hindu nationalism championed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP\, literally “Indian People’s Party”). This nationalist ideology\, borrowed from Germany and Italy\, was explicitly rejected by India’s founding fathers because it was exclusivist\, chauvinistic\, and socially divisive. The Congress leadership saw India as a mosaic of faiths and cultures\, held together by their shared struggle against British imperialism. But\, according to Chandra\, the BJP has sought to remake India as a Hindu nation out of a vast ensemble of inherited theistic and nontheistic practices and their accompanying philosophies. For the Hindu nationalist elite\, he said\, these diverse Indic traditions must be replaced by a modern nationalist ideology built around an imaginary majority and pitted against minorities. \n\n“In a digital age\, social democracy means fusing together the myriad voices and social fractals that do not share much in common beyond a common antipathy to fascism.” \n\nUnder Modi\, the BJP has sought to make this ideological fantasy into social reality\, online and offline. A new political morality now justifies violence against ideological enemies in pursuit of a national communitas. Social media platforms empower ordinary users to generate words\, images\, and videos that further the Hindu nationalist project at the expense of minorities and those accused of sympathizing with them. \n\nIn a democracy without liberalism\, Chandra identified “social democracy” as the main alternative to Hindutva (Hinduness) today. The roots of this challenge lie in caste-based\, regionally specific movements for social justice that emerged during the 1980s at the same time as Hindutva. While these regional and caste-based parties allied previously with the Congress party to form national coalition governments\, they now offer a distinctive vision of a federal polity committed to the multitude of small voices that make up contemporary India. In state elections over the past two years\, this coalition of Opposition parties have\, alongside the Congress\, outsmarted and defeated the BJP. \n\nChandra concluded his talk by arguing that India is an ideal case study to understand contemporary fascism. India shows us how fascism\, which must be distinguished from the political movements led by the likes of Corbyn and Sanders\, has arisen paradoxically out of a long process of democratization. Additionally\, it has come at the expense of a small globally oriented and liberal-minded elite at odds with the majority of citizens. Lastly\, the antidote to fascism\, whether today or in the interwar years\, comes less from a return to liberalism than from the tantalizing possibility of social democracy. “In a digital age\, social democracy means fusing together the myriad voices and social fractals that do not share much in common beyond a common antipathy to fascism\,” he said. Over time\, Chandra suggested\, we may be cautiously hopeful that social democratic coalitions will succeed at the expense of fascism. \n\n\n\nUday Chandra is Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar. He is interested in state-society relations\, power and resistance\, political violence\, agrarian change\, and the philosophy of the social sciences. His work has been published in the Law & Society Review\, Critical Sociology\, Social Movement Studies\, New Political Science\, The Journal of Contemporary Asia\, Contemporary South Asia\, and The Indian Economic & Social History Review. Chandra has co-edited volumes and journal special issues on caste hierarchies\, the ethics of self-making\, the politics of the poor\, and social movements in India. His first book\, Resistance as Negotiation: Making States and Tribes in Modern India\, is forthcoming with Stanford University Press. For the academic year 2019/2020\, he is a CIRS Faculty Fellow. \n\nArticle by Chaïmaa Benkermi (Class of 2021)\, Publications Fellow
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/fascism-20-lessons-democracy-india/
CATEGORIES:CIRS Faculty Lectures,Dialogue Series,Race & Society
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200406T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200413T150000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200504T101546Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T094138Z
UID:10001434-1586181600-1586790000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Football in the Middle East Working Group II
DESCRIPTION:Between April 6 and 13 2020\, the Center for International and Regional Studies held the second working group for its research initiative on “Football in the Middle East.” In light of the rapidly changing restrictions imposed on international travel as well as to maintain social distancing measures\, this working group was held “virtually”. Paper contributors made use of available technological options to meet\, present and comment on each of the paper submissions. The Working Group welcome and wrap up brought the scholars together for live interaction via Zoom conferencing\, and these group sessions were complemented by asynchronous interaction through prerecorded video discussions using Blackboard. This dual approach enabled CIRS to adapt to the current global situation and ensure the continuation of its research activities and engagement with the academic community. \n\nThe presentations and papers discussed are as follow\, \n\nPlaying in the triple periphery: Exclusionary policies towards Palestinian football in Lebanon- Danyel Reiche \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nGCC Football Fans and Their Engagement: Establishing a Research Agenda – Simon Chadwick \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nEducation in sports administration from scratch: the case of Qatar – John McManus \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nWho Kisses the Badge? The Player’s Perspective in the Performance of National Identity in the Qatar National Team – Thomas Ross Griffin \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nRefugees and Football in the Global and Middle East Context – Ramón Spaaij \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nBeyond Soft Power: Football as a Form of Regime Legitimation – Abdullah Al-Arian \n\n\n\n\n\nThe National Game: A Political Prehistory of the Egyptian League – Ibrahim Elhoudaiby \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nWomen’s football in Turkey: Trivial\, threatening and ultimately unequal – Yagmur Nuhrat \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nA Study of Football Art as Political Expression in the Algerian Hirak – Maher Mezahi \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nThis CIRS project is an attempt to engage and produce new literature on an understudied area in the Middle East by engaging scholars and experts from multiple disciplines\, including political science\, anthropology\, business\, and journalism among others. After final revisions based on peer comments and suggestions\, CIRS will gather the final chapter submissions into an edited volume on Football in the Middle East to be published by a university press. \n\nRead more about this research initiative\n\nParticipants and Discussants:  \n\nShaza Afifi\, Georgetown University in QatarZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarSimon Chadwick\, emlyon Business School\, FranceIbrahim Elhoudaiby\, Columbia UniversityThomas Griffin\, Qatar UniversitySalma Hassabou\, Georgetown University in QatarMehran Kamrava\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJohn McManus\, Qatar UniversityMaher Mezahi\, Independent Football Journalist\, Algeria Suzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarYagmur Nuhrat\, Istanbul Bilgi University\, TurkeyDanyel Reiche\, American University of BeirutRamon Spaaji\, Victoria University\, Australia Jackie Starbird\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/football-middle-east-working-group-ii/
CATEGORIES:Focused Discussions,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200414T124500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200414T134500
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200430T101733Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072616Z
UID:10001432-1586868300-1586871900@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Sonic Connections and Diasporic Belonging: Malayalam Radio in Qatar
DESCRIPTION:Irene Promodh\, a Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) junior majoring in International Politics and a CURA Research Fellow\, presented her research titled\, “FM Radio and the Malayali Diaspora in Qatar: At Home Overseas” in a virtual CURA Focused Discussion on Tuesday\, April 14\, 2020. Promodh undertook this research project as part of the Certificate in Media and Politics (CMAP) program\, which is offered jointly by GU-Q and Northwestern University in Qatar. She used a mixed-methods approach in conducting her research\, deploying both semi-structured interviews with radio producers and listeners and media content analyses of the radio content broadcast itself. As such\, “Malayalis” or speakers of the Malayalam language (the official language of Kerala\, a state in South India) form the demographic focus of her research along the axes of gender\, class\, occupation\, and family status. \n\nPromodh traces the ways in which diasporic vernacular radio mediates the everyday lives of Malayali migrants in Qatar across both home and workspaces\, particularly for single\, lower-income\, male\, and female migrants. In Qatar\, she deploys Radio Yatra FM [pseudonym used] as a case study in her project to examine the role of migrant radio along both radio production and listenership lines and its salience in the everyday work lives of Malayalis in Qatar. Promodh finds that Malayali radio audiences negotiate their “Malayali-ness\,” or the ways of being Malayali\, along gendered and socioeconomic lines through their engagement with diasporic vernacular radio. Paying attention to sonic waves and networks that bind together radio stations and audiences in Qatar across work and home spaces\, she argues that diasporic vernacular radio both reinforces and challenges notions of “Malayali-ness” both within the Gulf Malayali community (bandham) and in non-Malayali urban workspaces in Qatar. Highly affordable and accessible\, Promodh argues that radio uses migrant sabdam or “sound” to create and recreate spaces of sonic belonging\, territorializing Malayalis’ workspaces along ethnolinguistic and exclusionary lines. She premises her findings\, such as the one above\, on her interview data with individuals ranging from Malayali beauticians at small salons and limousine drivers to library staff and\, of course\, radio station staff themselves. \n\nEngaging with the scholarly works of Laith Ulaby\, Neha Vora\, and Fahad Bishara\, among others\, Promodh explores the cultural production histories of the western Indian Ocean and the formation of the Arabi-Malayalam language. She examines through ethnographic methods how the current socio-political realities that Malayalis in Qatar face transfigure Malayalam as a “migrant language” and its usage\, which is regulated in the public sphere. Promodh observes the musical traditions associated with pearl-diving and shipbuilding\, as well as other cross-cultural exchanges between India’s southwestern coast and the Persian Gulf\, to explore the long-standing relationships between the two regions. While language in the past represented interconnectedness Promodh argues that today\, “language is an exclusionary medium in the creation of non-physical space or\, in effect\, “soundscapes\,” even along citizen-migrant lines\, situating just the native speaker within.” \n\n“Radio is central to diasporic Malayalis in Qatar as it creates a space of sonic belonging for them within the community.” \n\nPromodh explores the interaction between the Malayali diasporic community and Radio Yatra\, a prominent radio station in Qatar. She details how the 2017 Qatar Blockade transformed the diasporic radio scene in Qatar\, bringing Radio Yatra to the forefront of the radio scene. Through her case study of this radio station\, Promodh dictates the cross-sections between politics and media narratives which exist in trying to cater to the Malayali audience in Qatar. She argues that Radio Yatra is “central to diasporic Malayali life [because it creates a] sonic belonging . . . within the Malayali community.” She quotes Neha Vora\, an anthropologist\, to suggest that the Malayalis in Qatar experience a “state of permanent temporariness.”[1] The final segment of her presentation reiterates the gendered dynamics at play between radio jockeys and their audiences\, as well as between the female jockeys themselves and their male managers. Through her interviews\, she examines the professional realities of female radio jockeys\, their workplace hierarchies\, and their relationship with their male superiors. Promodh also explores the politics of the “ideal” Malayali family construct and how female Malayali radio jockeys construct and redefine their perceptions of womanhood and diasporic belonging according to norms associated with Malayali femininity and family life in the Kerala context. \n\nIn all\, Promodh’s research deconstructs and demonstrates the symbolism of diasporic vernacular radio in the lives of Malayalis living in Qatar. Promodh concludes that Malayalis in Qatar experience “home away from the Kerala homeland via diasporic vernacular radio.” The radio\, which may be perceived as an ordinary infotainment medium\, accentuates the blurred nature of “work-leisure” boundaries and its profound role in the lives of the Malayali diaspora in Qatar. Through her empirical observations and findings\, Promodh steers towards a refreshing narrative of migrant life in the Gulf beyond parochialisms of migrants as purely “labor.” \n\n[1] Vora\, Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora\, 3.\n\n_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ \n\nIrene Promodh is a junior at GU-Q majoring in International Politics and is originally from South India. She works as a CURA Research Fellow and assists CIRS Director\, Professor Mehran Kamrava\, and Associate Director for Research Zahra Babar with their research centered on the region\, while also working to advance the newly established CURA program. Her personal interests are rooted strongly in researching the dynamics of the media in influencing labor migration trends from South Asia to the Gulf\, and she hopes to pursue further research in this field. \n\n  \n\nArticle by Khushboo Shah\, CURA Administrative Fellow
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/sonic-connections-and-diasporic-belonging-malayalam-radio-qatar/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:Regional Studies,Student Engagement
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200423T124500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200423T134500
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200503T071249Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210610T074111Z
UID:10001433-1587645900-1587649500@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:CURA Spotlight on Undergraduate Publishing
DESCRIPTION:On April 23\, 2020\, CIRS hosted an online CURA workshop titled\, “CURA Spotlight on Undergraduate Publishing\,” featuring presentations by Suzi Mirgani\, Assistant Director for CIRS Publications\, Jackie Starbird\, CIRS Publications and Projects Assistant\, and Chaïmaa Benkermi\, CIRS Publications Fellow. The workshop was centered around supporting undergraduate research and publishing\, with a focus on the path towards academic publishing\, its benefits\, as well as its difficulties. Overall\, the workshop aimed at offering interested students useful resources and information to promote more undergraduate research and publication. \n \n \nSuzi Mirgani led the workshop by sharing her professional experience and advice on research and publishing. Additionally\, the workshop actively engaged participants to share their ideas\, questions\, and concerns. She recommended various venues in which to publish\, including peer-reviewed academic journals\, and advised against engaging with vanity presses or those that demand a fee to publish. She encouraged students to practice their academic writing skills by regularly writing and submitting book reviews to academic journals\, which are relatively short in length and can be smartly integrated into a student’s regular university reading and writing workload. Mirgani shared her experience\, both as an author and as an editor\, regarding the peer-review process\, which she acknowledged to be an exhausting\, but worthy process that becomes easier with practice. Over time\, students learn scholarly writing requirements and the best ways to execute them. Mirgani emphasized the importance of keeping an open mind when it comes to reviewer criticism as well as patience regarding the often-lengthy process. She also stressed the importance of understanding the power relation between author and publisher when entering the publication field. Moreover\, Mirgani engaged students by questioning their research interests and current projects and received questions on how to transform a class paper to a ready-to-be-published submission and how to avoid biased writing. \n \n \nJackie Starbird expanded the discussion and included examples of publishing sites\, offering platforms such as the CURA Paper Series to gain valuable experience in the review and publishing processes. She also gave examples of undergraduate research journals and explained the selection criteria for submissions and requirements for publishing such as word count\, formatting\, and recommendation letters. Starbird concluded with helpful tips on writing and publishing\, including using resources offered by CIRS’s CURA program and GU-Q\, such as seeking out professors for advice and mentorship and setting goals like presenting a paper at a conference. \n \n \nChaïmaa Benkermi\, Annual Undergraduate Research Conference (AURC) President\, followed with an introduction of  AURC as a way to voice\, present\, and publish original research for undergraduate students. This year’s conference theme was “The Road to Peace: Challenges and Opportunities for Peacebuilding.” She explained the process of application and review but also encouraged students to be part of the AURC team. \n \n \nThe workshop concluded with helpful tips on writing and publishing including using resources offered by CIRS and GU-Q\, such as seeking out professors for advice and mentorship and setting goals like presenting a paper at a conference. Overall\, this workshop aimed at offering interested students useful resources and information to promote more undergraduate research and publication. \n \n \nArticle by Salma Hassabou\, CURA Administration Fellow \n \n \n 
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/cura-spotlight-undergraduate-publishing/
CATEGORIES:Student Engagement
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200622T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20200629T170000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20200706T115507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T094156Z
UID:10001435-1592841600-1593450000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Tunisia in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings Working Group II
DESCRIPTION:Between June 22 and 29 2020\, the Center for International and Regional Studies held the second working group for its faculty research initiative on “Tunisia in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings.” This CIRS project is a faculty-led initiative\, under the intellectual guidance of Professor Mohamed Zayani. Adopting a hybrid model the group met and discussed the submitted chapters virtually. The group met for two short sessions of live group interaction using Zoom conferencing and discussed and provided feedback on the submitted chapters via asynchronous interaction through prerecorded videos hosted on the Blackboard platform. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach\, the meeting offered an in-depth discourse on the post-revolutionary Tunisian state. \n\nThe paper presented and discussed are as follows: \n\nTunisian Youth: Catalyst for Socio-Political Change and Emergence of Identity Politics in post-Arab Spring Tunisia – Zouhir Gabsi \n\n\n\n\n\nTunisia’s Reinvigorated Civil Society – Zuzana Hudáková \n\n\n\n\n\nTransitional Bodies\, Modern Politics and Anti-Democratic Potential: The Case of HAICA – Enrique Klaus \n\n\n\n\n\nWomen’s Rights in Tunisia from 1900 to 2020: From Taboo to Totem – Lilia Labidi \n\n\n\n\n\nTunisian Transition in the Context of Middle East Persistent Authoritarianism- Marina Ottaway \n\n\n\n\n\nFrom Political Protest to Contention against Austerity: Mobilization in Tunisia Post-2011 – Irene Weipert-Fenner \n\n\n\n\n\nEnnahda and Post-Islamism Politics in Tunisia – Fabio Merone \n\n\n\n\n\nWhat can Tunisia’s Past Tell us about its Future? – Alexandra Blackman \n\n\n\n\n\nUnder the intellectual lead of Professor Zayani\, this CIRS project seeks not only to identify and better understand trends that characterize the country’s uneasy transition 10 years after the revolution but also to examine what some of these intricate and intertwined changes of transition mean for the future of the Tunisian state. The contributions to this research project are embedded in imperially grounded research from the perspective of various disciplinary specialty and research focus. CIRS plans to publish the outcome of this timely project in an edited volume in the near future. \n\nRead more about this research initiative. \n\nParticipants and Discussants:  \n\nZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarAlexandra Blackman\, New York University Abu Dhabi\, UAEAhmad Dallal\, Georgetown University in QatarZouhir Gabsi\, Deakin University\, AustraliaZuzana Hudáková\, Sciences Po\, ParisMehran Kamrava\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarEnrique Klaus\, Galatasaray University\, TurkeyLilia Labidi\, Association of Tunisian Women for Research and Development (AFTURD)\, TunisiaFabio Merone\, University of Ghent\, BelgiumAlyssa Miller\, University of Pennsylvania\, USSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarMarina Ottaway\, Woodrow Wilson Center\, USJackie Starbird\,  CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarIrene Weipert-Fenner\, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt\, GermanyMohamed Zayani\, Georgetown University in Qatar\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/tunisia-aftermath-arab-uprisings-working-group-ii/
CATEGORIES:CIRS Faculty Research Workshops,Focused Discussions,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20201006T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20201006T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20201008T103218Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210610T074127Z
UID:10001436-1602007200-1602014400@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The 2022 World Cup in Qatar in Historical Perspective
DESCRIPTION:The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ breaks new ground—the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East\, the first in a Muslim majority society\, and the first to be held in November. David Goldblatt\, a sociologist\, journalist\, and bestselling author examined the economics\, politics\, and urban development that have accompanied the upcoming event and compared these to past World Cups. \n\nGoldblatt explained\, “The 2006 World Cup in Germany was the first one to have a proper dimension for the environmental aspects of the major sporting event. The 2014 and 2018 World Cup editions had full-scale carbon analysis. 2022 is genuinely different. The commitment of the Qatari government towards the environment is really noteworthy for a carbon-zero event. The seriousness towards this commitment is seen in the construction as well as in the public transport arrangements for the World Cup.” \n\nSpeaker: David Goldblatt\, is an honorary fellow at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture\, De Montfort University\, Leicester\, U.K.\, teaches for the Geneva based Football Business Academy\, and is a visiting Professor at Pitzer College\, Los Angeles. \n\nModerator: Danyel Reiche\, Visiting Associate Professor at GUQ.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/2022-world-cup-qatar-historical-perspective/
CATEGORIES:FIFA World Cup Series,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20201019T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20201020T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20201125T094405Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072540Z
UID:10001437-1603126800-1603222200@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Economic Migration to the United States Virtual Working Group
DESCRIPTION:On October 19-20\, 2020\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) held the second working group for its research initiative on Economic Migration to the US. The virtual meeting brought together scholars who presented draft papers on important themes related to immigration reform\, transnationalism\, education\, and labor market participation and employment. In addition\, several papers provided focused case studies of economic migrants from particular regions such as South Asia\, East Asia\, and Latin America. \n\nThe working group commenced with Payal Banerjee’s paper on “Economic Migration to the US: An Exchange with Data-Capitalism\, Surveillance and Other Considerations in Immigrant Incorporation.” In this paper Banerjee critiques a terminology that frames and conceptualizes international migrants to the US within a bounded idea of “economic.” What constitutes economic migration is informed by broader social and political mechanisms and dynamics. This paper seeks to expand the economic lens and press against it so that it captures the social and historical making of immigrants and their labor contributions in the US. The Banrjee paper suggests that it is essential to address issues of inherent inequality between labor and capital through a structured discussion of capitalism and its new forms. A particular scrutiny of the impact that automation\, digitization\, and surveillance technologies are having on migrants is needed at the current juncture. Banerjee states that new forms of automation\, as well as data capitalism and the algorithms it produces are reshuffling the circulation of capital and influencing immigration management in the country.   \n\nTerry Wotherspoon presented his paper on “International Student Mobility and Settlement\,” stating that until fairly recently there was limited scholarship and policy attention focused on international students as potential future immigrants. In his paper\, Wotherspoon focuses on the relationship between national immigration policies and the aspirations or desires of the students themselves\, and studies the factors that  either facilitate or inhibit students’ permanent settlement. While for the most part international students are still seen by the state primarily as temporary visitors\, policy developments reflect the fact that internationals students have also been considered as a useful means by which to address short-term labor market needs. There is a significant gap between the number of students who express a desire to remain in the host country and those who find employment and actually stay on after completing their studies. The paper looks at various pathways available for international students to facilitate their stay in the US and how this is informed by global trends. \n\nIn his presentation on  “South Asian Migrant Communities and US Politics\,” Sangay Mishra questions the political deficit that temporary migrant workers faces as a result of limitations to political and civic participation that the visa regime imposes on them. The H-1B is essentially a guest worker visa  that is designed around the concept of temporariness. This visa regime produces a democratic and civic deficit in the United States\, as those living and working in the country under this visa category are relegated to non-participation. In the US inclusion and participation are assumed to be privileges available to those who “earn it\,” usually through contributing to the economy and abiding by the system and their legal status for a certain duration of time. However\, for those who remain on the H-1B there is no guarantee of acquiring permanent status or becoming eligible for citizenship\, despite years of staying on US soil. In the empirical section of the article\, Sangay looks at a particular situation that is created for Indian H-1B visa holders when they apply for a green card and the waiting time. \n\nSilvia Pedraza’s paper on “Transnationalism Among Immigrants: Economic\, Political\, Social\,” outlines the various immigrant experiences such as assimilation\, incorporation and transnationalism. Pedraza argues that while immigrants to United States have always demonstrated forms of transnationalism\, current advances of in communication technology have changed the nature and scope of their transnational behaviors. The present day American immigrant lives across two or more nations as well as different time spans\, tied to the past and the present\, in both host and sending country. Pedraza’s paper breaks down the different types of transnationalism that demonstrate distinctly economic\, social\, and political elements. \n\nMin Zhou shared her research on “Contemporary Immigration to the US from East Asia.” Professor Zhou’s paper focuses on the migration of three major ethnonational groups\, Japanese\, Chinese and the Koreans\, and their distinct histories of migration to the United States. Zhou states that while these three groups have their own distinct migration stories\, they are often racialized and treated as single consolidated group in the US. This paper provides an analytical overview of the immigration trends of the three Asian migrant communities\, and how their diasporas have evolved. The paper provides a structured discussion of contemporary trends of cross-border mobility\, socioeconomic characteristics of migration and patterns of social mobility for each of the Asian communities. Zhou suggests that old and new stereotypes have continued to influence the lives and identity formation of East Asian Americans. \n\nIn her presentation of a paper jointly authored with Catelina Amnuedo Dorantes on “The US Visa System without Legislative Change: Growing Complexity and Difference\,” Professor Katherine Donato addressed the issue of variations in the US visa systems across presidential administrations. She maintained that the legal visa systems that were created by the Immigration Act of 1990 remain unchanged and still define the way legal immigrants enter the US. She provided an overview of the visa admission system\, defining its goals\, composition and reforms that have occurred under successive administrations. Using immigrant entry data\, covering the 2002 through 2017 as well as trends in nonimmigrant visa issuances she maintained that visas differ in important ways across various US administrations. The variations have intended and unintended consequences\, which are important for any policy proposals drafted in the future to improve the legal immigration system in the US. \n\nLindsey Lowell continued the discussion on the visa systems by focusing on H-1B visa category. In his paper titled\, “Preferential Hiring and the US Earnings of Skilled Foreign Temporary Workers\,” he maintained that the theory of preferential hiring drives our understanding about sector-specific earnings of H-1B workers. Employers often prefer to hire foreign workers and temporary visa systems such as H-1B offer advantages in hiring and control over employment. In this paper Lindsey proposes that the when it comes to the earnings of H-1B the correct comparison should be to all domestic workers i.e. natives and foreign born. Combing data on H-1B with a large sample of US workers\, full time domestic worker\, Lindsay’s research concluded that while H-1B earn more than native born workers\, their earnings are less than that of domestic workers. \n\nMisba Bhatti addressed the question of degree devaluation with her paper titled\, “Devalued Credentials: Pakistani Female Highly Skilled Migrants in the United States.” This work examines and nuances the experiences of highly skilled women from Pakistan and details the issues they face in the United States in regard to the devaluation of their foreign earned degrees. There is a gender skew with women often being placed at a greater academic or occupational disadvantage than their male counterparts. This is more visible in sectors that hire certain sets of skilled migrants and are usually tipped in favor of male skilled migrants. Likewise\, the foreign credentials of female migrants from South Asia are treated differently\, as that of having lower standards\, than that of women skilled migrants from developed economies.  As a result highly skilled female migrants from developing economies face systematic dual dichotomy when it comes to their foreign earned credential recognition in the U.S. \n\nThe last discussion of the working group was led by Rene Zenteno\, who presented a paper on “Latin American Skilled Workers’ Socio-Economic Integration.” Using data from 1990 to 2018 the paper constructs an updated demographic and provides an understanding of the recent transformations of the Latino immigration to the U.S. The data collected yields a picture of significant changes in the characteristics and qualities of Latino Immigrants as this wave of migration from Latin America declines quickly. The paper states that this  decrease in the flow of Latin immigration has effected student migration largely\, as well as the supplies of high-skilled Latino immigrants. Professor Zenteno also argues that despite changes in cohort quality\, the successful integration of Latino immigrants into the U.S. society is still hindered by the large presence of un-skilled workers\, the lack of a path to legalization\, the low rates of naturalization\, and the ethno-racial profiling of U.S. immigration enforcement. \n\n  \n\nFor the roundtable agenda\, click here.For the participants’ biographies\, click here.For the research initiative\, click here.\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\nMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarPayal Banerjee\, Smith CollegeMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarAhmad Dallal\, Georgetown University in QatarKatharine M. Donato\, Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) – Georgetown UniversityCatalina Amuedo-Dorantes\, University of California\, MercedAnatol Lieven\, Georgetown University in QatarB. Lindsay Lowell\, Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) – Georgetown UniversitySuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarSangay Mishra\, Drew UniversitySilvia Pedraza\, University of Michigan\, Ann ArborElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarTerry Wotherspoon\, University of SaskatchewanRené Zenteno\, The University of Texas at San AntonioMin Zhou\, University of California\, Los Angeles\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/economic-migration-united-states-virtual-working-group/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Focused Discussions,Race & Society
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20201116T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20201116T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20201203T065136Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T062455Z
UID:10001438-1605549600-1605555000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Qatar's Football Journey: From First Games on Sand to Hosting the World as Asian Champions
DESCRIPTION:Qatar has no football history\, or so the critics say. In this moderated lecture\, Doha-born journalist and author Matthias Krug debunks that myth by telling the inside story of the country’s most cherished football and sporting moments and players over the past six decades. \n\nKrug expressed\, “Qatar has become a capital of world sports which will host global football fans in 2022. So in order to gain a full understanding of this development it is important to look at the history and where this rapid development and incredible sports vision has come from.” \n\nSpeaker: Matthias Krug is an author and journalist who was born and raised in Qatar\, where he lives with his family. Matthias has written extensively about football\, society\, politics and culture for over 18 years for some of the biggest publications around the world\, including for the BBC\, CNN\, ESPN\, The Huffington Post\, The Irish Examiner\, Al Jazeera English\, 442\, El Pais\, Arts Monthly Australia\, and many others. His most recent book is titled Journeys on a Football Carpet\, published by HBKU Press in Qatar\, won awards at the International Book Awards and Living Now Awards. His creative short stories have been published in literary magazines across numerous countries. \n\nModerator: Danyel Reiche\, Visiting Associate Professor at GUQ.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/qatars-football-journey-first-games-sand-hosting-world-asian-champions/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,FIFA World Cup Series,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210118T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210118T180000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210125T111850Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072517Z
UID:10001439-1610985600-1610992800@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:A New Political Strategy to Limit Climate Change
DESCRIPTION:Watch the Video\n\n\n \n\nIn this moderated discussion based on his latest book\, Climate Change and the Nation State: The Realist Case\, Anatol Lieven sets out a new political strategy to mobilize support for the effort to limit climate change. He argues that while international agreements and movements are valuable\, in the end\, their purpose is to get states to act\, because (as the pandemic response demonstrated) only states can take the measures and mobilize the resources required. For this to happen\, states and their populations have to be convinced that climate change is not just a threat to humanity in general\, but a danger to the vital interests and the long term survival of their own nations. \n\nBy refocusing the debate about climate change on the national rather than the global level\, Anatol Lieven concentrates on the states and institutions that can take effective action\, and on how mass support for such action can be motivated. This involves a recognition of climate change as an existential threat to existing nation-states and an appeal to progressive nationalism in response. He provides a Realist frame for the threat of climate change and the necessary response to this threat. This response will require radical changes to our economies and societies\, but he reminds us that in the past we have faced and overcome such immense challenges: the total wars of the 20th Century\, and the creation of social programs to civilize industrial society and save capitalism from itself. \n\nLieven shows how in this emergency our crucial building block is the nation-state. The drastic action required to change our societies may be inspired in part by internationalist idealism but can only be carried out by the institutions of effective nation-states\, backed by public legitimacy. This requires different national versions of what has been called the “Green New Deal”: to rebuild social solidarity\, not only in order to justify the sacrifices that will be necessary in the fight to limit climate change but in order to strengthen our societies so as to withstand some damaging effects of climate change that are already inevitable. This will also require new policies to limit migration and deal with the impact of artificial intelligence. \n\nSpeaker: Anatol Lieven is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a Fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. He was previously a professor in the War Studies Department of King’s College\, London. He worked for twelve years as a British foreign correspondent\, reporting from South Asia\, the former Soviet Union\, and Eastern Europe for The Times and other publications. His other books include Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (1998);  Ethical Realism: A Vision for America’s Role in the World (2006); America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (2011) and Pakistan: A Hard Country (2012). \n\nModerator: Ahmad Dallal\, Dean\, Georgetown University in Qatar.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/a-new-political-strategy-to-limit-climate-change/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Lectures,Dialogue Series,Environmental Studies,Regional Studies
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210214T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210214T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210301T072835Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T062414Z
UID:10001440-1613325600-1613332800@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Away Game: The Epic Search for Football’s Next Superstars
DESCRIPTION:Reporter Sebastian Abbot discussed his critically acclaimed book\, The Away Game\, which tells the gripping story of a group of boys discovered in what may be the largest talent search in sports history. Over the course of a decade\, an audacious program called Football Dreams held tryouts for millions of 13-year-old boys across Africa looking for football’s next superstars. Led by the Spanish scout who helped launch Lionel Messi’s career at Barcelona and funded by the State of Qatar\, the program chose a handful of boys each year to train to become professionals—a process over a thousand times more selective than getting into Harvard. In The Away Game\, Abbot follows a small group of boys as they are discovered on dirt fields across Africa and join the glittering academy in Doha where they train and compete for the chance to gain fame and fortune at Europe’s top clubs. \n\nSpeaker: Sebastian Abbot is the author of The Away Game: The Epic Search for Football’s Next Superstars\, which tells the story of the largest talent search in football history. The book was a finalist for The Telegraph Football Book of the Year and the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Prior to publishing the book\, Mr. Abbot spent over a half dozen years working as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press in the Middle East and Asia. He has also worked for over a decade in investment banking and private equity for firms like J.P. Morgan and Affiliated Managers Group. Mr. Abbot has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. \n\nModerator: Danyel Reiche\, Visiting Associate Professor at GUQ.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-away-game-the-epic-search-for-footballs-next-superstars/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,FIFA World Cup Series,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210321T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210321T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210328T104141Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T062343Z
UID:10001441-1616349600-1616355000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The FIFA World Cup: Football\, Citizenship\, and National Identity 1930-2022
DESCRIPTION:Gijsbert Oonk\, Director of the Sport and Nation research program at Erasmus University Rotterdam\, discussed his study exploring the relationship between national belonging\, acquiring citizenship\, and migration. Taking high profile examples from international sports events\, he sought to unveil the complexities behind the question: who may represent the nation? The historical models of jus sanguine (blood ties) and jus soli (territorial birthright) are well-known markers and symbols of citizenship and nationality. Oonk proposed an ideal-type model of thick\, thin\, and in-between forms of citizenship. \n\nSpeaker: Gijsbert Oonk holds the endowed Jean Monnet chair on Europe in Globalizing World: Migration\, Citizenship and Identity. This chair promotes education and research in the field of Global history\, European studies\, and national identity. The Jean Monnet chairs are an initiative of the European Commission to promote education\, research\, and reflection in the field of European integration studies at higher education institutions. The Sport and Nation research program at Erasmus University Rotterdam focuses on talented athletes with a migrant background within football and the Olympic Games in the context of changing citizenship\, multiple citizenship\, and elite migration. \n\nModerator: Danyel Reiche\, Visiting Associate Professor at GUQ.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-fifa-world-cup-football-citizenship-and-national-identity-1930-2022/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,FIFA World Cup Series,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210322T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210322T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210411T085509Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072426Z
UID:10001442-1616432400-1616441400@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education Virtual Working Group
DESCRIPTION:On March 22\, 2021\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) held a virtual working group under a faculty-led research initiative on The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education. This book project is being led by Georgetown University-Qatar’s Professor Karine Walther and Professor Oliver Charbonneau from the University of Glasgow. Over the course of the two-hour meeting\, fourteen scholars participating in this project presented their preliminary chapter abstracts. The assembled group of scholars through their various chapter contributions will be exploring industrial education in different global contexts\, from multi-disciplinary perspectives\, including both historical and contemporary case studies. \n\nLaura Mair’s chapter will be focusing on the ragged schools’ movement in Britain in the mid 19th century that were an Evangelical response to address child poverty. These schools provided impoverished children with a free education delivered by volunteer teachers\, and by 1868 there were approximately 560 ragged schools teaching 50\,000 children. In the earliest years of the movement\, literature suggests that the focus was on providing children with the “three Rs” i.e. reading\, writing\, and arithmetic. But increasingly industrial schooling became a core component of the education offerings at these institutions. Dr. Mair’s chapter will trace the shift towards industrial building that occurred in these ragged movement schools from the 1840s asking whether this shift was financially or ideologically driven. Dr. Mair will also be studying the linkages between industrial education and the emergence of the ragged school emigration scheme\, to shed light on broader social and economic attitudes towards poor children. \n\nJanne Lahti’s chapter will focus on industrial education in native American boarding schools\, and how materiality entangled with ideas of labor in the late-1800s and early-1900s\, propagating and complicating the racial and cultural moorings of the empire. Using examples from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania\, Dr. Lahti will explore how these institutions contested white and indigenous cultures of work\, and became a tool for transforming indigenous students into loyal subjects of the US settler state by transforming them into white workers who embodied white material cultures. \n\nHelge Wendt’s chapter will focus on the industrial education system in Spanish America\, where specialized training programs were established to educate young men in mechanical production processes. The model of training young boys and men was largely similar to other technical and industrial school systems established in other countries in the 19th century. However\, a key element that made it different from the European or American contexts was how it was integrated into agricultural production. Dr. Wendt will study the establishment of specialized educational institutions from different countries of Spanish America\, highlighting the connections with the political\, economic\, and educational contexts of these schools. \n\nElif Akşit’s chapter will focus on the history of industrial schools in the Ottoman Empire and their subsequent continuation in modern Turkey. Dr. Akşit analysis of industrial education in the late Ottoman empire and modern Turkey suggests that they are part and parcel of efforts resisting colonialism\, modernization\, and the transformation from an empire to the republic. The first group of industrial schools were very similar to the ragged schools movement in Britain\, focusing on the education of orphans and involving them in the production of goods for the army. Dr. Aksit aims to study the development of the Girls Industrial Schools in the late Ottoman Empire and Girls’ Institutes in Turkey and explore the question of what is meant by “Industrial” in the western as well as eastern contexts. \n\nThe technical petro-education program at the College of North Atlantic in Qatar is the focus of Danya Al-Saleh’s chapter. She will examine struggles over transferring the national oil industry’s in-house industrial trades education program to a Canadian branch campus in Qatar. The program in question aims to produce enough Qatari men graduates to work as entry level technicians in the industry. However due to racialized labor hierarchies in the Gulf\, it has been a challenge to recruit and retain Qatari students. The situation is further made complex by Qatar’s broader development agenda\, which emphasizes building an educational system for a knowledge-based post-oil international order. Al-Saleh aims to situate this research within the longer history of capitalism and imperialism shaping oil education programs and racialized labor hierarchies across the Gulf. \n\nZahra Babar’s chapter will examine the development and delivery of technical training programs and vocational education in Pakistan over the past three decades. Technical and vocational education have a long history in Pakistan\, and justified on the basis of bridging the gap between the educated and the uneducated poor in the country. Designed to be delivered to the lower income\, rural\, and marginalized communities\, vocational training delivery was increasingly supported by the large rural support programs during the 1980s-1990s. At that period delivering employable skills for lower income communities was tied to the needs of the local labor market. However\, in the 2000s there was a shift in the logic and the design of these programs\, as increasingly government efforts in support of vocational training became specifically tied to migration opportunities for unemployed\, lower income citizens. In this chapter Babar will aim to explore ways in which the social and physical mobility of the poor has always played a central role in shaping Pakistan’s vocational education goals. \n\nBronwen Everill’s chapter will focus on the role of Liberians in promoting projects of industrial schooling in Liberia and around West Africa. Black Americans who migrated to Liberia in the nineteenth century helped to establish various educational enterprises aimed at promoting Christian education and agricultural and industrial education amongst different African communities. By the close of the 19th century Liberians were involved in a variety of imperial projects training African workers in other parts of the continent for plantation labor\, domestic housework\, and for skilled and unskilled industrial labor. She aims to look at ways educational expertise was used to both reinforce and challenge racial hierarchy in the African context. Dr. Everill’s analysis of these programs situates them within transnational imperial collaborations facilitating colonial capitalism’s reach in Africa. \n\nContinuing the theme of African American education\, Julia Bates\, stated that American sociologists played an eminent role in supporting and promoting the industrial education model used at the Tuskegee and Hampton institutes. While sociologist such as Thomas Jesse Jones\, received recognition for their advocacy of this model\, W.E.B. Du Bois’s critique of the model was largely ignored in American sociology. Dr. Bates in her chapter will examine this critique of American sociology of race\, and highlight how the American sociology of race has been intertwined with and supports this model. \n\nHossein Ayazi’s chapter also draws on the Liberian case\, and how the Booker Washington Institute and its core constituencies were able to merge the promise of Black self-government with the prolongation of plantation production under the control of American multinational corporations. Specifically\, in his chapter\, Dr. Ayazi looks to Booker Washington Institute materials\, U.S.-Liberian correspondence regarding the institute and the Firestone rubber plantation\, and social scientific reports that discussed the role of industrial education across Africa. Across these archives\, Dr. Ayazi traces the broader recognition of Liberia’s latent capacity for political and economic self-rule\, as well as the recasting of Liberian self-rule as a condition of techno-scientific advancement in the realm of agricultural production. In other words\, with enough techno-scientific training\, it is (Americo-)Liberians would replace the white Americans that ran the vast colonial bureaucracies of multinational plantation corporations\, and in doing so\, manage their own country\, the world’s second Black Republic. Dr. Ayazi proposes that the Booker Washington Institute and broader shifts in international finance\, plantation production\, and industrial education not only deflected the charge of “colonial slavery” levied against the Firestone in the 1920s and 1930s. By the beginning of the Cold War\, the Booker Washington Institute had also modeled the United States’ counterrevolutionary approach to agricultural and rural development across Africa. \n\nArun Kumar’s chapter focuses on colonial India and Christian missionary schools that promoted and provided industrial education. These missionary schools engineered the concept of work in colonial India\, by teaching that work is not just labor and economic activity but also an ethical and religious activity. Industrial schools were the key institutions through which this discourse of manual labor and work was articulated and practiced. Dr. Kumar chose two school in South India\, which were run by the American Madura Mission\, the American Arcot Mission\, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel\, as case studies\, to address the role of Christian missionaries in building a new discourse of work\, worker and labor by studying the history of their industrial schools. \n\nSarah Steinbock-Pratt’s chapter will study the United States’ efforts at developing industrial education in the Philippines as part of its colonial governance. While the colonial educational officials looked to American schools for black and Indian students as possible models\, industrial education was not the initial focus of the schools in the Philippines. The early years of colonial schooling in the islands centered on English language instruction and primary subjects\, while a wide-ranging debate was held over the type of education that ought to be provided. At the same time\, officials in the US and the Philippines instituted a program to send Filipino students to the United States to study. This program also faced similar questions about whether to provide government scholars with classical or industrial training. Ultimately\, like the colonial educational system itself\, the program was divided between an attempt to win over and Americanize elite Filipinos\, and the perceived imperative to train Filipinos for futures rooted in agricultural development. \n\nIn his chapter Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus will study the role of industrial education before and during the colonial period in Korea (1910-1945)\, with a particular focus on the development of YMCA. The first “Industrial Education Departments” were developed by YMCA and other missionaries in Korea\, to educate the students about industrial labor and capitalism. The missionaries used these departments as a convenient tool for instilling Koreans with a Protestant work ethic\, whereas for the Koreans these were a means to attain civilization and enlightenment. The Japanese Governor-General also supported similar programs to provide industrial education to the Koreans. Neuhaus proposes to explore the intersection between the missionary efforts for industrial education and colonial education policy in Korea. \n\nLukas Allemann’s chapter will study industrial education under the Soviet Arctic sphere\, and on the industrial education programs the USSR provided to the Arctic’s indigenous communities\, namely the Saami people. This chapter will aim to highlight the connection between monoculture and economy\, as well as monoculture and dedication. The economy in the north\, mostly focused on reindeer hurting. Which meant that industrial schooling\, built around a monoculture of education\, went hand in hand with industrial reindeer herding. Monoculture in school also meant focusing on linguistic monoculture and the majority culture\, meaning here the Russian culture. He expressed that this a has significance across regions\, because all circumpolar states did similar things in this respect\, and in this respect\, there is no Iron Curtain. These industrial schools also highlight the ‘Westernness’ of the Soviet Union\, which Dr. Allemann proposes to address. \n\nThe discussion was brought to a close by Joshua Frank Cárdenas\, whose proposed chapter will focus on the origin and founding of D-Q University in his presentation. He explained that D-Q University is a California-based Chicano and Indian college\, founded in response to religious and federal industrial education policies and practices for captive Nations and individuals. For his research he proposes to detail the early origins of industrial education for Americans found at Hampton\, Carlisle\, Perris Indian\, Sherman Indian\, Fort Bidwell and Greenville Indian Industrial Institutes or boarding schools. Cárdenas also aims to examine the nature of California Indian and American Indian communities in 1960s and trace the early struggles of Red Power. \n\nThe authors received feedback on their abstracts\, and engaged in a group discussion on the broader thematic framework for this book project\, and discussed how the various chapters are to speak to each other. Between May and August\, short follow-up virtual meetings will be held where draft papers will be presented and discussed by the group.    \n\nFor the roundtable agenda\, click here.For the participants’ biographies\, click here.For the research initiative\, click here.\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\nElif Ekin Akşit\, Ankara University\, TurkeyMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDanya Al-Saleh\, University of Wisconsin–MadisonLukas Allemann\, University of LaplandHossein Ayazi\, Williams CollegeZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJulia Bates\, Sacred Heart UniversityMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJoshua Frank Cárdenas\, California Indian Nations CollegeOliver Charbonneau\, University of Glasgow Ahmad Dallal\, Georgetown University in QatarBronwen Everill\, University of CambridgeArun Kumar\, University of NottinghamJanne Laht\, University of HelsinkiLaura Mair\, University of EdinburghSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, Free Berlin University Sarah Steinbock-Pratt\, University of AlabamaKarine Walther\, Georgetown University in QatarElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarHelge Wendt\, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) Berlin\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-gospel-of-work-and-money-global-histories-of-industrial-education-virtual-working-group/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Research Workshops,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210329T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210329T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210414T060845Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210915T123553Z
UID:10001443-1617040800-1617046200@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:CIRS Faculty Fellow Talk: The Amazingly Idiosyncratic History of Passports by Edward Kolla
DESCRIPTION:When COVID19 hit\, many inveterate travelers like myself were dazed by how quickly something we took for granted had disappeared. Gone\, suddenly\, was our ability to grab our passport\, hop on a plane\, and be in a new country—sometimes even without the hassle of getting a visa. But something else we took for granted\, back in those halcyon days\, was the very need for passports to enjoy international mobility. Though ubiquitous and seemingly all-necessary\, passports are something of a historical fluke. While travel documents of all sorts date back to the start of recorded history\, the story of how we arrived at these little booklets—which\, by the way\, are totally uncodified in international law—is quirky\, complex\, and counter-intuitive. \n\n\n\n\n\nEdward Kolla | The Amazingly Idiosyncratic History of Passports | March 29\, 2021\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nExtra Q&A | The Amazingly Idiosyncratic History of Passports | April 2021\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Eddie Kolla has taught history for 10 years at Georgetown University in Qatar. He has also held research fellowships\, most recently\, at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg\, Germany. His work sits at the intersection of history\, international relations\, and law and includes Sovereignty\, International Law\, and the French Revolution (Cambridge\, 2017).
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/cirs-faculty-fellow-talk-the-amazingly-idiosyncratic-history-of-passports-by-edward-kolla/
CATEGORIES:CIRS Faculty Lectures,Dialogue Series,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210407T200000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210407T213000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210502T092723Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072442Z
UID:10001444-1617825600-1617831000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Everyday Energy: Approaches to Lived Experience
DESCRIPTION:The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar  launched its newly-formed Energy Humanities research initiative with this webinar panel discussion titled “Everyday Energy: Approaches to Lived Experience.” The event featured three area experts in the field of Energy Humanities and was moderated by GU-Q faculty members\, Victoria Googasian\, Trish Kahle\, and Firat Oruc. The Energy Humanities initiative is a new project under the CIRS Environmental Studies thematic cluster and aims to provide new understandings of the influence and impacts of energy in everyday lives and stimulate new conversations in the scholarship.  \n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers: \n\nDominic Boyer\, Founding Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences\, Rice University.  \n\nSara B. Pritchard\, Associate Professor in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University.  \n\nJennifer Wenzel\, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature and of Middle Eastern\, South Asian\, and African Studies at Columbia University. \n\nModerators: \n\nVictoria Googasian\, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University- Qatar. \n\nTrish Kahle\, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University- Qatar. \n\nFirat Oruc\, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University- Qatar. \n\n\nTranscript\n\n\n\n				\n				click here to read 			\n			\n								 \nGood evening and welcome to the CIRS panel  discussion entitled “Everyday Energy:  Approaches Delivered Experience.” My name is Ahmad Dallal\, I’m the Dean of the Georgetown University Doha campus. This panel discussion is part of the CIRS\, the  Center for International and Regional Studies\, newly formed research initiative on Energy Humanities\, which is being led by three Georgetown  University faculty members\, professors\, Victoria Googasian\, assistant professor of American Literature at GUQ. Professor Trish Kahle\, assistant professor of history at Georgetown University Qatar\, and Professor Firat Oruc\, assistant professor of world literature at Georgetown. Building on the previous research and scholarly record of CIRS\, the thematic focus on environmental studies continues to address central questions related to climate change and other issues of environmental concern. Today’s Energy Humanities Initiative is a new project under the CIRS Environmental Studies’ thematic cluster that aims to generate new scholarly conversations on the importance of everyday energetic life to the study of energy’s past\, present\, and future. For today’s discussion\, we are honored to have three scholars renowned for their work in the field of energy humanities. Professor Dominic Boyer\, professor of anthropology and founding director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Science at Rice University. Professor Sara Pritchard\,   associate professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. And Professor Jennifer Wenzel\, Associate Professor of English and  Comparative Literature and of Middle Eastern\,   South Asian\, and African  Studies at Columbia University. I graduated from that department.  Just one little remark I was asked to mention that at the bottom of the screen\, at the very right\, that is an icon\, which says CC\,   which will enable you to have a  live transcript if you need to. So you could click on that icon to have a  transcription of the lecture. Right now\, without further ado\, there is a  very rich conversation ahead of us. I will hand over to Vicky to start the show\, and welcome. \n  \nHi\, everyone\, and welcome once again on behalf of myself and my co-organizers\, Trish and Firat to this kickoff webinar for CIRS’s New  Energy Humanities research initiative. I’m also just going to speak very briefly so we can get the show on the road and hand things over to our distinguished panelists. But I did want to just say a few words about the project. Very\, very briefly before we get started. So we’ve conceived of this project as the title of the panel and the webinar suggests in response to what we perceived as a need to consider the lived experience of energy. And I want to explain what we mean by that phrase. Though\, of course\, we’re hoping that our panelists can help us think through it in greater depth as well. So here in the Gulf\, I think it’s not surprising that scholarly approaches to energy have often been concerned with the sort of big picture issues of state security\, political stability\, global economic relations\,   that arise out of the production and consumption of energy. And this is really the zoomed-out view of energy\, as it were. But our goal for this project is to use our position as humanists\, as humanities scholars\, to add just another layer of nuance and texture to that study of energy by bringing the scale of everyday life\, everyday life of individuals and communities into focus. Which is not to say that we’re trying to reject or ignore the other scales at which states or economic systems and energy infrastructure operate. But we hope to connect these big structures that govern the flow of energy in our world to everyday experiences of ordinary people both in this region and beyond it. As you may know\, the energy humanities is a rapidly expanding field of research\, and we think that humanistic approaches are particularly well suited to answering these kinds of questions about the social and cultural dimensions of energy. We expect this panel to be the first in a series of conversations\, so we’re inviting everyone here to keep an eye on the lovely new website that our colleagues at  CIRS have put together for us\, where you’ll find podcast episodes and other content forthcoming as the project continues to get to gather momentum. But tonight\, we’re very pleased to be hosting this trio of experts whose work covers a  wide range of fields\, topics\, geographical regions\,   all of whom have already made vital contributions to the study of lived experience of energy. And we’re excited to think with them about this topic tonight. So without further ado\, I will hand things over to our first panelist\, Dominic Boyer. Dr. Boyer\, take it away\, whenever you’re ready. \n  \nThanks so much\, Vicky. And thanks to all the organizers of this event. I think it’s really quite historically important\, this initiative that you are that you’re developing. And I just feel humbled and honored to be a part of it. Thank you so much. So my background is in anthropology and especially in historical and political anthropology. And so\, part of thinking about everyday energy for me is thinking about how we came to the kind of relationship to energy we have today\, which\, according to fellow historical anthropologist   David Hughes\, is one of energy without conscience. We use incredible amounts of energy\,  especially in the Global North\,   often without thinking very much about its consequences. So what I’d like to reconstruct in my few minutes here is a very brief glimpse of that bigger history. You see an image here which shows a kind of macrocosmic visualization of the United States energy system. Two things could strike you. One\, how huge it is\,   100 quadrillion BTUs worth of energy in one year flowing to the United States. And 80 percent of that is still fossil fuels. Only one percent is solar. So\, you know\, if we had started listening to scientists some 30 years ago\,   maybe that would be inverted. But the fact that it hasn’t suggests that these historical legacies are very important in terms of setting conditions of possibility for contemporary everyday energy experiences. And so that’s what I like to sort of highlight a little bit today. Now\, I think that the history of modern energy\,   maybe counterintuitively actually begins in the European colonies\, in the so-called new world\, and particularly in the sugar and coffee plantations. This has been documented through a substantial amount of historical and political anthropology\, that have looked at these relationships that\, you know\, the colonists came to the new world with the ambition to start growing things. And this precious commodity of sugar was one of their first ambitions. Columbus carried sugar cane clippings with him on his very first…his second voyage\, rather. And as the conditions proved ecologically ripe for this kind of development in the 16th and 17th century\, first the Portuguese and then the British and French created thousands of plantations across the Caribbean with the aim of exporting these precious commodities back to Europe. African slaves were brought in by the millions to power to offer the labor power for these plantations. And they were treated\, as David Hughes argues\,  as a kind of fuel\, as an expendable resource. They were literally worked to death in this process. And so for him\, our relationship to energy today sort of begins in that lack of concern with human welfare in the plantation system\, and with the fact that\, as Kathryn Yusoff has put it\, Europeans learned how to treat human beings as expendable and extractable energy properties through this experience. Now\, sugar itself had a dramatic influence back in Europe.   It transformed both middle-class and working-class diets. It helped create the industrial worker who could work longer\,   faster\, harder than before\,  whose diet might still be poor. But having these stimulants always at the ready really helped. And indeed\, to this day\, we see the kind of emphasis on stimulants and labor connected to sort of capitalist modernity. So this changed over time\, of course\,   but it changed in part because of the restriction of the slave trade. The abolition movements definitely deserve credit.   But above all\, it was the uprisings of slaves against the plantation system that were decisive. And in this respect\, the Haitian revolution really deserves our attention as a geopolitical event that\,  in the specific sense\, brought to an end France’s new world ambitions\,  led to the Louisiana Purchase\, and the doubling in size of the United States\, but also led to an increasing concern among those who operated plantations about what to do with this unruly labor force\, and an interest in investing in machine labor as a way of replacing it. So\, a lot of the innovations and machine labor that we credit as being associated with the industrial revolution begin to take shape within the plantation system first. Then those ideas come back to  Europe. And there’s a wonderful book\,   a wonderful work of energy humanities by  Cara Daggett called “The Birth of Energy\,” that explains how in Victorian  Britain you get a coming together of steam engine technology\, imperial ambitions\, new thermodynamic science and Presbyterian moral values that helped to redefine energy\, which\, up until then had been sort of a sense of dynamic virtue. It gets redefined and specified as being associated with work. Energy as work. And it’s work within a universe that seemed to be prone always to tending towards entropy\,  towards dissipation\, towards waste. So human beings have to organize themselves to work even harder to make something of what the divine has bequeathed them. That leads\, of course\, to a tremendous investment in civilizational hierarchies and definitions that the Victorians are famous for. All arranged by capacities to use machines and to produce work and energetic racism\, as Dagget describes it\, that legitimates further imperial expansion and dispossession and that naturalizes fossil fuel use and wage labor as social necessities for human improvement\, reinforcing the capitalist obsessions with work and growth. But of course\,   all of this is known already in the Caribbean. It doesn’t get invented in England. It really gets worked out in the new world. If you look at the old plantation manuals\, you see how they already were conceiving of human beings as machines\, of plantations\, as machines\,   where they had to manage energy and productivity in very careful ways. Well\, to bring this story a  little bit closer out of the “sucro-political” into what I call the  “carbo-political” era\, with the spread of machines throughout Europe\,   comes an increasing need for the energy density of high carbon fuels. Wood will no longer do\, and coal\, by the end of the 19th century\,   becomes the dominant enabling fuel behind a European imperial modernity. And along with it\, comes a sort of new regime of production and a new regime of commodities and consumption; what some have called the democracy of things\, that suddenly\, the “thingly” life around us becomes enriched and people demand and feel entitled to goods that they wouldn’t have had before this era. So the carbo-politics has a kind of dramatic shaping of what we think of as modern life and the affordance and luxuries that it involves. But as Timothy Mitchell tells the tale in his fabulous book\, “Carbon Democracy\,” there were limits to the sort of evolution of coal. And it really wasn’t about the pollution\, which\,   we all know that burning coal is polluting and unpleasant\, but it was less about that dimension of coal use that was problematic than the political\, the labor politics of it. It takes a lot of people to mine coal and move it around. And those people have to go underground in dangerous conditions. And they become\, they develop a  sense of fraternity and identity and they start making demands\, demands that we now call maybe\, perhaps “social democratic” demands for labor rights and safe labor conditions. And\, in fact\, a lot of the the labor improvements that occur in the 20th century are owed\, according to Mitchell\, to the work of coal miners specifically. So he argues that in the post-World  War Two redesign of the global economy\,   there’s a deliberate shift from coal to petroleum. Petroleum requires much less labor. It’s quite flexible in terms of how can be moved around the oceans via shipping and pipelines. And also it has these material properties that petrochemicals can produce plastics. A whole new regime of consumer goods becomes possible. And so the global modernity that typifies where we are now really takes shape in the middle of the 20th  century\, driven by petro-culture\, driven by consumerism and again\, cheap goods and rampant energy use without much regard for environmental and social consequences. So\, it really just brings us to where we are today. And this is my last slide\,   hopefully on time\, where\, you know\, the question that all of us are interested in is:  what comes post-petro and how will that intersect? Given our topic here today with our everyday expectations\, uses\, ideologies\, understandings of energy. Can we shift away from this model of energy as work? Do we have to shift towards something that Daggett calls “energy as freedom\,”   liberating energy from work? Do we have to shift our energy sources from the heavy reliance on petroleum and other high-density sources towards solarity? Which is something that a lot of people are talking about. How can that be achieved? What are the cultural forms that will come along with a solar revolution? These are things that I think we’re going to talk about in the discussion to come\, so I’ll just stop there. Thank you. \n  \nThanks so much for that history\, as you kick us off\, and for those questions. And I do think we will come back to you. I just want to remind our attendees that you can post questions at anytime\, using Q&A button at the bottom of the screen. And we will have time to get to those questions at the end of tonight’s webinar. So now I will go ahead and hand things off to our second panelist\, Sara Pritchard. So\, Dr. Pritchard\, the floor is yours. \n  \nYes\, I think I know how to do this after all this time with Zoom\, sorry. This was working a minute ago. Hopefully this is working now. OK. Can you see this? Is this working now? Great. Thank you. So I’m delighted to be here and thank you for the invitation and honor of being part of this launching event. It is an exciting and important initiative. Very briefly\, as some of you know\, my areas of interest include environmental history\,   the history of technology\, and environmental science studies. So\, most broadly\, I’m interested in the relationships between\, and dynamics among\, people\, the environment\, and technology in the past\, but also with an eye to the present and the future. First off\, as a historian\, I very much appreciate the roundtable’s and thematic project’s interest in everyday energy and lived experience for a number of reasons influenced by social history\, labor history\, and other subfields. These themes encourage us to think about energy not just from elite perspectives\, political\,   economic\, and intellectual elites\, but they push us to consider a much wider range of historical and also contemporary actors. This is sometimes called a bottom-up history versus top-down history. These themes also call attention to race\, ethnicity\, class\,   gender\, religion\, and other categories and historical processes such as colonialism\, which all can shape experiences with\, and ideas about\, energy. If we put these very broad concerns in conversation with energy specifically\, I think we can consider the experiences and voices of energy workers\, users\, consumers\, mediators\,   as well as of non-users\, those who opt out\, but particularly those who are outside dominant energy systems or made outside these systems. Overall\, everyday energy and lived experience encourages us to engage with a much wider set of actors\, consider the role of agency of these groups. They nuance our understanding beyond simplistic generalizations\,   and they open up conversations and windows onto contestation and debate. All are really important. Now\, as I was reviewing the prompt and trying to collect my thoughts and comments\, I have to admit that I kept finding myself sliding back into energy systems and infrastructures and regimes\, which in many ways is the opposite of this initiative. So my comments here\, and I think there’s synergies with Dominic’s presentation\,   focus on the intersections of these issues. I want to think a little bit about how energy systems or these higher-level analyses certainly shape and limit\, quote-unquote\, everyday energy without being either deterministic or outside historical change. But at the same time\, how a more social history approach to energy infrastructure and regimes yield important insights about the limits and constraints of these systems. So I want to make five brief points.   When we think about technological systems\,  especially so-called high-tech systems\, I think it’s really easy to focus on the technological stuff because systems are by definition large scale and are composed of many constituent parts. So if we think about nuclear reactors to produce energy\,   we might think about uranium fuel rods\,  cooling towers\, power lines\, and so forth. But as historians of technology and others have shown\, large-scale systems also depend on workers\, not just experts\, designers\, and engineers\,   but operators\, technicians\,  and other everyday workers. Often these workers become more visible\, or quite visible\, during crises\, such as the operators who desperately tried to manage the reactors at  Fukushima in the hopes of preventing meltdown\, which didn’t happen. Or in February of this year\, an unusually cold winter storm settled across Texas and much of the American South\, and utility operators initially initiated what were intended to be rolling blackouts to prevent a catastrophic failure of the grid. Workers also contend with crises and emergencies and their complex aftermaths\, often at considerable risks to themselves. So here we might think of Fukushima’s eighteen thousand cleanup workers. The large point I want to make here is that workers are really essential to high-tech energy systems and\,  therefore\, consumers’ ability to use energy. Workers have particular lived experiences with energy and energy systems as laborers\, and consumers and users ultimately rely on energy workers’ knowledge\, skill\, and labor. The second point I want to make is that\, in some parts of the world—and I think we have to be careful about generalizations— energy systems are certain forms of energy and their associate systems have become so\, so normal and systematized that they basically become invisible or taken for granted. Electricity is a good example here\,  say\, in Europe and North America. Several scholars have analyzed how energy production and consumption is increasingly separated both spatially and socially. So many of us are fortunate to just be able to flip a switch to turn on electric lights rather than spending days and weeks making candles for winter. But as scholars of infrastructure have argued\,   infrastructure becomes so normalized\, it becomes an invisible\, assumed backdrop—until it fails. So the point I want to highlight here is that normal accidents—to borrow the phrase from Perrow—disasters really\, so-called disasters\, and failure\, put everyday dependency on energy and energy systems into sharper relief. However\, scholars have also shown how it takes concerted work and effort to normalize and institutionalize energy systems. For instance\, Chris Jones has discussed how people had to be taught how to use and burn anthracite coal in the domestic sphere. It wasn’t self-evident. And he has these wonderful multipage manuals teaching servants for wealthy East Coast families basically how you put anthracite coal in stoves. I love this example for a couple of reasons. For one\, that it highlights domestic workers and their labor generally\, but particularly their labor around energy specifically. Yet another example\, electrification was much slower and funkier than confident proclamations by inventors\, utilities\, and promoters at the time suggest. So we need to look at rhetoric versus reality. And what I want to highlight here is how energy systems and infrastructure are neither inevitable nor permanent. They take work. In my view\, one of the most important issues is the uneven or unequal distribution of social and environmental costs\, risks\, and vulnerabilities associated with energy infrastructure and regimes\,   both during normal operations and crises. For many marginalized groups\, this is a  defining feature of energy as lived experience. So to give two examples from colleagues: Andrew Needham has shown how dramatic demographic growth and suburbanization in the US Southwest\, where it’s very hot\, depended on a lot of energy in part to support centralized air conditioning. Yet the so-called livability of these suburbs relied on coal-fueled electricity. Electricity produced on Diné or Navajo lands And it was these communities who experienced the disproportionate environmental and health effects of coal-fired plants. Or we could look at an example from atomic energy workers\, Gabrielle Hecht\, who’s looked at uranium mining in Africa and the short-term and long-term hazards nuclear workers faced through exposure\,   even though they weren’t seen as part of the nuclear age or nuclear world\, that at times\, this extended into families and communities with radioactive clothing or using scrap metal from mines to make shacks or other buildings. So my take-off point here is I think\, frankly\, it’s irresponsible to analyze energy systems and energy without attending to social and environmental justice. Quickly\, my fifth point: energy systems are obviously dependent on organic and or inorganic energy sources\, but these systems are always located in environmental contexts that both shape and are shaped by those systems. And this is encapsulated by the concept of an “envirotech” subfield in the history of technology and environmental history. And we can certainly hear considerable lived experiences of both humans and non-humans in these energy landscapes. Certainly\, hydroelectricity is probably one of the most obvious cases here. So I’d like to highlight that this complete separation of environment and technology is an erroneous and even dangerous ideal. So to quickly close as we are now in year two of the pandemic\, I want to acknowledge the vital energy of human labor\, particularly essential workers and caregivers in these extraordinary times\, but also\, as Gabrielle Hecht calls it\, extraordinary times that have revealed and deepened existing problems and inequalities both nationally and globally. And I look forward to our conversation. \n  \nThanks so much for those remarks and those points that we’ll bear in mind moving forward tonight. So finally\, I’d like to hand things over to Jennifer Wenzel\, who will close out our panelists’ opening remarks. So\, Dr. Wenzel\, take it away. \n  \nThank you very much. And I’d like to add my thanks to the organizers.   It’s such an honor to participate in this inaugural event. And I’m particularly enthusiastic about the specific focus you’ve chosen for your energy humanities initiative: the theme of everyday energy. To me\, the central idea of the energy humanities is that neither climate change nor the various economic and environmental challenges associated with fossil fuels are merely engineering problems. Rather\, are political problems\,   narrative problems\, and ultimately problems of the imagination. My own expertise is in narrative\,  not just literary narratives\, but also the implicit unspoken narratives that shape cultural imagining and everyday experience and how we think about\, or more importantly\, don’t think about\,  issues like oil and fossil fuels. This is the idea of normalization that Sarah was just talking about. For many people who are fortunate enough to inhabit what the Niger Delta poet Ogaga Ifowodo calls the “chain or ease” enabled by fossil fuels\, the primary mode of thinking about energy is not having to think about it. In this fossil-fueled cultural imaginary\, oil is at once everywhere and nowhere. Indispensible\,   yet largely on apprehended\, not so much invisible\, as unseen. And I borrow this line from my  introduction to “Fueling Culture.” I’m bringing my screen up now. My introduction to this book\, Fueling Culture\, which is a compendium of keywords on the intersections between energy and culture that I coedited with Imre Szeman and Patricia Yaeger\, and Dominic has a piece in this collection. One of the key concepts in Energy Humanities is “impasse\,” the predicament that Imre Szeman has described as knowing where we stand with regard to environment and energy\, but being unable to take action at a scale adequate to the situation. Impasse is a problem for politics. But I’d argue that it’s also connected to esthetics\,   by which I mean ways of seeing and sensing how we learn to see or not to see. How we learn to regard some things as ugly and other things as beautiful. Think wind turbines. The future might hinge on whether we can convince people that wind turbines are beautiful\, solar panels as well. How we learn to regard some things as pleasurable or desirable. These questions of pleasure and desire are central to the question of everyday energy. No matter what we think about oil\, every one of us derives some kind of pleasure from the world that fossil fuels have built\, including the ways that our own bodies interact with and are shaped by the world around us. It’s not that we love oil itself\, which is\, after all\, kind of smelly and sticky\, but that we all have some embodied attachment to the things that oil makes possible. I hear air conditioning is pretty important to a number of the hosts of this event. So for some people\, this sense of embodied petro-pleasure comes from the smoothness and sheen of plastic. For me\, the smell of my dad’s butane lighter\, when I was a kid. I’ve even written an essay on how I love to fly. I think I remember it vaguely\,  how I love to fly. Of course\,   it’s not the indignities of post 9/11  commercial air travel that I love\, but rather the thrill of exhilaration when the pilot hits the gas and my body is jolted back in the seat. I love the technological sublime of an active airfield\, the many kinds of labor that bring a plane from the sky to the gate\, and the sea of twinkling blue lights on an airport runway at night. I first described my love of flying for the students in my class on literature and oil. I asked the students to write what I  call an “oil inventory\,” a creative\, open-ended assignment in which they make an inventory. In other words\, a list or an accounting of the significance and presence of oil in their lives. Some describe their relationship to oil over the course of a single day. Some wrote a biography of their oil lives so far.  I came up with the idea of the oil inventory\, when I read this passage from Edward Said’s introduction to Orientalism\, where he writes: “The starting point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is\, and is ‘knowing thyself’ as a  product of the historical process to date\, which is deposited in you an infinity of traces\, without leaving an inventory… Therefore it is imperative at the  outset to compile such an inventory.” And I love the kind of sedimentary imagery of history depositing these traces in you. So the fundamental gesture of the oil inventory is this active process of knowing oneself in relationship to fossil fuels. Here’s my own academic biography in the form of an oil inventory. So the oil inventory challenges students— and I should say that I wrote this academic bio on a dare from Stephanie LeMenager\,  another wonderful scholar of energy humanities. So the oil inventory challenges students to acknowledge their love for some part of the world that oil has made—something they would not want to lose. Rather than focusing only on guilt\, shame\, or fear\,   which don’t seem a promising way to break through impasse and to lean toward transition. Such negative emotions can lead to a gesture that’s all too easy of pointing out energy hypocracy\,  whether one’s own or others. As if anyone who drives or flies or eats food comes from a factory gives up the right to wonder and worry about fossil fuels. We are oil subjects who inhabit a  society built upon fossil fuels. That’s the big picture the oil inventory invites students to glimpse. But one of the less encouraging lessons that I   take from the historical work of scholars like Matt Huber is that the oil inventory was actually invented by the oil industry. And here’s one example of Huber’s argument about advertising campaigns launched by U.S. oil companies dating back to the 1940s that explicitly invite consumers to consider the indispensability of petroleum products in their lives. So I think here we see some of the ideological and imaginary work of normalization. Look\, there’s oil in your food. Isn’t that great? Don’t worry about it. And I would say that the same strategy is at work in this recent ad campaign by Exxon Mobil\, which is called Energy Lives Here. And I’m going to play an ad from this campaign\, which is fortuitously enough called  Enabling Everyday Progress. And I’ve Lost. Here it goes. I’m going to go ahead. I’m not totally sure the audio is going to come through. You don’t need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible. Because we do. We’re Exxon Mobile and powering the world responsibly is our job. Because boiling an egg isn’t as simple as just boiling an egg. Life takes energy. Energy and lives here. So ad this offers a perfect example of Huber’s argument that the energy industry in North America creates knowledge and awareness of consumers’ dependence on energy precisely in order to ensure passivity. Right. It’s not that they don’t want us to know about energy. They want us to know that we need it. So notice how the ad invites viewers to forget the revelations offered by the ad’s visual mapping of all that is involved in boiling an egg. So we hear “you don’t need to think about  the energy that makes our lives possible because we do.” So the lesson that I draw here is that critical studies of energy in the Energy Humanities must reclaim the oil inventory from the oil industry in order to disrupt the settled habits of mind that surround the energy regimes of the present. Thus\, the need for oil inventories of a more complete and complex kind than those that Exxon Mobil are offering. But this task is made harder by the fact that capitalism understands the workings of desire and the imagination better than we would like. Thus\, the need for critical investigations of everyday energy. Thank you. \n  \nThank you so much to all of our speakers for those really wonderful opening remarks. Now we’re going to move into a section that will offer some questions and hopefully get a discussion going. Among them\, please do feel free to respond directly to each other as well as to the questions. And I’m also going to try and incorporate some of your remarks into the questions as we go. And so the first is to really think about  method by trying to and — I’m sorry that my cat just decided that this was the time she was going to come and try and bother me. So we’ll see if she cuts off. But in any case\, how your discipline\, in particular\, understands the concept of lived experience\, because I was really struck in your talks by some of the different ideas that came through\, the ideas about social revolution\,  about work\, about sensory life. And so I’m just going to offer that as perhaps a starting point to thinking about that\, that particular ways that you approached lived experience in your disciplines. Whoever would like to start off. \n  \nWell\, I guess I could start. I mean\, I think that anthropology\,  really the premise of anthropology\, is the study of lived experienced in its many\, many complexities. So I would say for us at least\,  this is very familiar territory. But what makes it unusual — just many thanks to my co-panelists\, Sara and Jennifer\,  for these amazing opening remarks — they showed how many layers there are to thinking about energy. You need to think about the forms of knowledge involved\, the forms of desire\, the institutions\, the infrastructures. So I think that it’s not even\, I mean\, lived experience captures a lot. And I think as we want to explore it\, we have to think about what are the strategies for maybe revealing some of the habits we have that are so ingrained and so under-analyzed in some ways that we don’t even think about it. I do agree with what Jennifer said\, that that’s kind of the premise of the Energy Humanities is to take what’s invisible and to sort of flip it over and to try to turn it on its back and look at all that’s there. Is there anything other panelists would like to add on? Well\, I was trying to. Oh\, look\, we’re unmuting at the same time. I think that the kind of the go-to answer for this from the perspective of literary studies — and I should say that I’m a  student of narrative. \n  \nRight. And so someone who works on poetry might object to my answer. But I would say that I think that the general assumption is that it’s realist fiction that is the genre that is meant to capture whatever it is meant by lived experience\, whether psychological realism or social realisms\,  a narrative that gives the effect of real life. But to echo what Dominic said\, I don’t think that it has been the case all the time. I wouldn’t say that it is only in the past decade or so that literary scholars\, anthropologists\, et cetera\, are becoming cognizant of energy. But I do think what Sarah said about crisis\, bringing the indispensability of labor and infrastructure into visibility has a corollary effect in literary studies. But I think what has passed for realism may well have included plenty of details that tell us about energy\, but we have tended not to notice them. Right. And so I think that even what counts as realism is up for grabs in terms of the extent to which we grapple with the indispensability of energy and the unevenness of energy. My colleague Imre Szeman has a kind of wonderful phrase for talking about this\, which is “fictions of surplus\,” which he uses to describe both the historical fiction that the surplus of energy that has been made possible by fossil fuels over the past two centuries is anything but an unrepeatable historical anomaly.   But the literary aspect of fiction of surplus is that literary fiction has not done anything to challenge that kind of fiction and bring it into visibility. I guess I’ll just out a couple of small things. I  think I alluded to this a bit in my comments. And first\, as a sidebar\, I’m just intrigued and love the synergy’s across our three comments\, which were entirely uncoordinated. But it’s amazing how there’s lots of ping-ponging and productive in generative ways. Thank you. \n  \nI alluded a little bit to social history really accessing lived experience and in important ways versus top-down history and also hinted at rhetoric versus reality in terms of thinking about what sources that we use\, which voices we access and Jennifer’s presentation\, talking about ads and idealized representations versus what things look like on the ground for different groups. So I think those are two important points just to draw those out again.   But also one of the things that  I’ve been thinking about is the “we.” I mean we’ve been using “we\,” our actors use “we” and really starting to challenge and pull that apart. And also the political-strategic use of  “we” in order to evade politics or keep power in the institutions and groups that already have them. So I think that asking questions about the “we” and generalizations that helps us get lived experience\, but precisely looking at lived experience and everyday energy helps us problematize the “we” historically\, contemporaneously\, ethnographically in terms of policy\, all those kinds of things in some really important ways. Yeah\, I think this really connects to some of your recent work for all of our panelists\, which have really drawn out these key concepts or metaphors. And I think we also saw some new ones tonight with the ideas of impasse\, visibility\, the idea of the non-user. But some of the ones from your recent work: the concept of solarity\, the idea of an endscape\, or the concept of extractivism. And I think given what you’ve all just said\, it would be interesting to maybe reflect on the utility of these big ideas for organizing these really diverse ranges of lived experience\, as well as to sort of think about the way they allow us an entry point into diverse forms of everyday life that we otherwise might not see. \n  \nCan I do that annoying political debate thing of answering my panelists\, ignoring the question momentarily\, and then getting to the question? Yeah. I mean\, I think that Sara’s point about the “we” is incredibly important. And I also saw\, I think maybe a question from Jeff Insko\, which I feel is kind of maybe getting to this as well. And I can say that my own training from graduate school as a scholar of post-colonial literatures\, specializing in Anglophone literatures of Africa and South Asia\, has really…the way I think about the specialty of my work has changed entirely as I have begun working more on energy humanities. Right. So it’s Nigeria that got me into thinking about oil to begin with. But it has become almost impossible to ignore my own institutional location in North America\, which is also the kind of it’s the center of gravity of well\,   I might get some pushback in this audience. But I tend to think of it as the center of gravity of the fossil fuel industry and also the center of gravity of the energy humanities. And so I think my work has become increasingly contrapuntal between the United States and places where I had been trained in graduate school to think about. Right. So the Mississippi Delta to the to the Niger Delta. And I think that’s all about not necessarily abjuring or disavowing the “we\,”  but thinking about the different textures of different kinds of we. Right. And another thing that I would say is that I don’t think it’s enough to say North America or the United States. And my thinking in energy humanities has been really shaped by two kinds of locations. One is the classroom. And I am in what now passes from my classroom\, right in my home. But one is the classroom. And I think that that is very much the site of thinking about the we of a class and how it connects to these other spaces. And the other is my former institutional location at The University of Michigan\, which was about forty-five minutes drive from Detroit. And so I think my students in  Michigan had a very different understanding of what it means to think about oil and energy than my students in New York. And I started thinking about energy\, you know\,   in the kind of downturn after the bankruptcy of Detroit. And so I think my students had a sense of a different kind of petro-violence than the petro-violence that I thought I was teaching them about\, about the Niger Delta. I will now —  sorry Trish\, to have ignored your question — I will now take it up. And I would answer just very quickly. And I think that you’ve asked me to talk about extractivism. And the very quick thing that I would say about that is that if anything\, I understand myself at this particular moment\, as I’m not sure anti-extractivism. — and by that\, like\, of course\,  we’re all anti-extractivism — but what I mean by that specifically is suspicious of that category as a category of analysis\, because I perceive in it a kind of conceptual creep where it’s it’s becoming a synonym for capitalism writ large. Right. And so losing the texture of what I had understood that word to mean. And here again\, I’m cribbing from a piece that  I co-wrote with Imre Szeman over the summer. And I think my favorite part of that piece is footnotes six or something like that\, which I wrote to claim what had been commons\, but would ask whether a dam is extractivist in the same way as a coal mine. And I don’t think that it is\, even if we can think about all of the kind of harms and costs that dams inflict on on communities. To me\, there’s a value in holding onto a particular kind of materiality in the concept of extractive\, which I feel is being how do you say\, metaphorized? Turned into a metaphor\, in all kinds of directions. But I appreciate the question. Sorry for going on. \n  \nThanks\, Jennifer. I guess I  could jump in and talk a little bit\, speak to the sort of the concepts\, in particular solarity as a concept that  I think a lot of people are beginning to think with in the energy humanities as a kind of an opposite from petro-culture or something. We’re not quite sure. And\, you know\, I guess I would tell the parable of one of the early critical theorists in our  European intellectual heritage\, Karl Marx\, who famously never really defined what\, you know\, a post-capitalist society was supposed to look like communism for him was the negation of the capitalist society of his era. It wasn’t the sort of newly formed\, fully formed world that was supposed to follow it. And that’s caused a lot of confusion. And then a lot of people pointed and said\,   you know\, you’re a lazy thinker\, an incomplete thinker for this reason. But he was a Hegelian\, and Hegelians don’t believe you can really understand things until you’re living in an experientially saturated way through them. So. what I would say about solarity is I don’t think we know what the post-petrol world is going to look like exactly I think what we can do\, though\, is we can both\,   on the one hand\, think about the values that should inform that world. And we can also think about the kinds of acts of de-systematization of petro-culture that we can all participate in. What I call sabotage. I mean\, the acts of sabotage that could be riding a bike instead of\, you know\, driving a car or flying less or demanding that your political representatives support decarbonization measures. There are a lot of ways you can participate through direct action or indirect action in that process. And I think that as a solarity comes\, and we’ve seen this throughout time\, many times\, again\, that something seems impossible to imagine until suddenly it’s there. And then you’re like\, oh\, of course\, we should have known all along that this is what it was. And I think that one of the things I would say\,  and I’m saying this from a place of Houston\, I’m saying it from the beating heart of petro-culture to you — is that the fossil fuel economy will end faster than we think. It’s already decisively on  its way out. And in 20 years\, we might be amazed to look back and say we didn’t see how fast it was going to end. So solarity is coming in some form or another. But I think to speak to the environmental justice question that was raised in Jeff’s question in the Q&A\, that is the key issue: how not to fall into the grooves of the extractivism of the past\, how not to build wind parks and solar farms in ways that dispossess people that don’t have. Create meaningful connections to landscapes and communities that prioritize the interests of global capital over the needs of people who live near to these installations. Those are the sorts of habits that we can actually have to work on to unmake so that we don’t end up creating a sort of solarized dystopia going forward. And that’s something that I  think is or is a legitimate fear. I guess I’ll comment briefly on the concept that you alluded to Trish in terms of… I had this extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime trip to a small bard in Norway north of the Arctic Circle in January 2019 which seems like a billion years ago now\,   particularly given travel and pandemic and everything\, during Polar Night. So it’s January during Polar Night.   And I wrote a piece about the experience of being there and what it was like and thinking about energy and the landscapes of energy north of the Arctic Circle. And so I was playing with  the concept of “endscape\,” which builds on Dolly Jørgensen’s concept  of “endling.” With “endling” being the last the last animal of the species that’s about to go extinct. So I was playing with the idea of endscape\, of landscapes that are on the cusp of disappearance or are on their way out. Which\, obviously\, the Arctic is ground zero for that. And part of the point of the piece was also thinking explicitly and making visible my own implication in that very process at Svalbard. Right. Because I flew a gazillion miles and it took three days to get there and all this kind of stuff\, as well as the other people who are part of this conference on darkness. I think I guess what I want to… there are two things I want to say about that that are related is\, that “endscape” can be a very privileged category in terms of the futurity of landscape\, rather than thinking about how many places are already endscapes or were endscapes 10 years ago or more. Right. And so anxieties about sea-level rise\, say\, on the coast of the United States versus islands or other parts of the world\,  which are already experiencing extensive change. And wrestling with the social and economic and  political implications of that and so forth. So I haven’t really played with  or developed this concept more. But I think what one of the things that’s important to me   is to not take for granted that many people\, particularly vulnerable people in North  America and around around the world\, are already living in endscapes\, so to speak\, and not imagine this is something that’s in the future\, whether in your future\, or just in the future. I think all of these comments and this sort of first chunk have really underscored something you had said earlier\, Sara\, right. Which was\, you know\, getting at this idea that the everyday can really give us strong insights into really profound questions about justice and ensuring justice. And so I want to invite our participants…our attendees\, rather\, to go ahead and begin sending in questions. I’m going to sort of shift to another round of questions. But we are going to open it  to the audience very soon.  And that will be great to have a  good list of questions to start from. And so now I want to sort of talk explicitly about something that I think has come up in all of the answers\, but to really come directly to this problem of futurity. And I think\, you know\, just taking a little bit of a shift\, I was wondering if we could think about even just the idea of lived experience beyond the human right\, so theorizing the lived experience as opposed to anthropocentric category\, how we might conceive lived experience to include non-human forms of experience as well as human. And so that might be obviously the energy realities of the present as well as future modes of relationality with non-humans. I guess I could jump in on this. It’s a great prompt. Thanks so much Trish. \n  \nIt reminds me a bit of one of my favorite energy humanities projects\, environmental humanities projects that I’ve done in my life\, which was working together with collaborators in Iceland and my partner Cymene Howe to create the world’s first memorial for a glacier lost in Iceland to climate change. The first of Iceland’s major glaciers to disappear to climate change. And we had a lot of interesting discussions talking about how do you mourn something that… How do you mourn the death of something that was never properly speaking alive? And how do you blend together sort of the the deep human traditions of thinking about Earth beings and their existence in places? And glaciers in Iceland have meant many different things in different times. And how do you acknowledge that alongside\, accommodate it to human ritual and human understandings of death? And I’ll say that that whole process was incredibly\, you know\, powerful for me and really made me think a lot about how at least in terms of the losses that we’re experiencing\, we have to be more present for them and we have to create communities of mourning around the changing world\, the damaged planet that we inhabit now. And I actually think that the experience of attending to and really thinking about\, say\, the loss of a glacier is like something like the loss of a friend or some kin. It’s something that actually\, I think has the potential to make us more engaged in the process of making sure that all the glaciers don’t go in the same way. So I do think that attention to the non-human\, the anthropocentrism is very deeply set in us\, especially in the north\, in terms of thinking about\, you know\, how we relate to the world. But that’s something that we really have to try to disable as we move forward or try to find other ways of being human. I’ll say as an anthropologist\, you know\,   the kind of European modernity that I was discussing in my presentation is pretty much a huge outlier to the rest of human cultures across time in terms of its\, you know\, its contempt for nature\, its contempt for other species\, frankly. And I think that’s something that\, again\, suggests that where we’re going is not simply just tweaking the existing system by putting up some solar panels and wind turbines\, but we actually have to engage in a process of civilizational transformation at a more fundamental level. And that’s something that’s frightening. But also\, when you think about it\, very exciting\,   because this civilization has a lot of blood in its on its hands\, if you will. And I think there’s a chance to make something better. I can jump in. I think there’s a synergy between what you just raised and something that I wanted to bring up kind of as a sidebar. There’s the classic question and history of science and particularly science studies about voice and representation or spokesperson and questions about who speaks for the non-human. Do scientists speak? What does that mean\, particularly given   that we know the ways in which science and scientists are shaped by cultural\, historical\, and other kinds of  contexts. But that’s kind of a sidebar.   What you’re just saying\, I think about cultural abnormality of the West. That’s my exaggeration\,   exaggerated summary of what you just said. I was just thinking about the ways in which  this question\, which I really appreciate\, is already predicated on certain assumptions  and places and cultures and contexts. And I’m thinking about the ways in which this question wouldn’t make sense  for many indigenous communities.   And so what does it mean to  be reflective\, even about these categories like living\, non-living\, human\, non-human. The question of kin and who  are what counts as kin. And certainly there’s been a lot of work  in environmental humanities about this\, but also some debate between it and  digital scholars and environmental   humanists in terms of what does it mean to appropriate indigenous notions of kin   to describe more complex relationships  between the human and non-human and the more than human. So by way of response or  engagement with this really important question\, I actually just want to encourage us  to think about the ways in which it’s   already culturally defined in particular ways\, and that that of itself\, I  think is important. Sorry. Yeah\, I think I appreciate what Dominic  was saying about a sense of loss. And I think that the words that  resonate for me in this question are “relationality\,” or the word is  is “relationality” rather than “experience.” And perhaps\, for the moment\, I  want to locate myself within a kind of   European mindset in order to say that I am not confident that I can  theorize non-human experience. Right. And I’m thinking partly with  Dipesh Chakrabarty\, who says that actually   we humans can’t experience ourselves as a species. Right. And so relationality  is therefore the word that   really kind of that resonates  for me in terms of understanding our relationship to energy as a multi or   understanding relationships to energy  as multi-species relationships. And maybe I’ll see if I can share my screen   for a literary example that comes  at this question in a different way. This is\, I think\, if I’m not mistaken\, this is the  very end of Italo Calvino’s story\, The Petrol Pump\, which is ostensibly a story about pumping  gas\, like pumping gas during the 1970’s oil shock. The first one in Italy. But  as this protagonist is pumping gas\, what he is imagining is\, as you  can read\, the day in the future\,   when “the earth’s  crust reabsorbs the cities\, this plankton sediment that was humankind will be   covered by geological layers of asphalt and  cement until in millions of years’ time it thickens into oily deposits\,  on whose behalf we do not know.” And what I so love about this passage in the story is that it takes the geological fact  of fossil fuels as tiny dead creatures\, right\, fossil fuels as fossilized life\,   and imagines a future in which humans become fossil fuels for another life form. Right. And so it uses the resources of fiction  to imagine what a future human relationship to fuel as fuel might look like on behalf of another species. \n  \nThank you all so much. That was really reminiscent\, actually\, of my environmental history students working through  Bathsheba Demuth’s “Floating Coast\,” this year. And just its a really wonderful and provocative discussion to have. So before we move over to audience questions\,  I’ll just pose one question\, bring it all back around and let you give some\, I guess\, wrap-up comments before we move to the audience questions\, which is just to think about  really explicitly what role the study of history and culture can play in bringing about a just energy transition. I know we’ve already reflected on this quite a  bit\, but. \n  \nOkay\, I can get started here. I can speak really specifically to the risk research that Cymene and I did on wind-power development in southern Mexico\, the densest concentration of onshore wind parks anywhere in the world\, primarily built upon ancestral indigenous lands of the binnizá and ikojts peoples. And without\, you know\, getting into the weeds on this too much\, just to say that it’s been incredibly impressive in terms of just decarbonizing electricity\, it’s been impressive from that standpoint. It’s a terrific development of over two gigawatts of clean electricity. So from that perspective\, very impressive. But it’s also been extremely politically contentious\, in part because the people who developed these projects had no understanding whatsoever of the specific history of this region\, of the indigenous cultures there and of their long relationship to various extractivist projects in the past. So even if you’re only thinking of this from a pragmatic point of view of how can you create clean energy projects that people don’t hate? History and culture have an enormous role to play in this\, as we found. And that’s simply\, you know\,   trying to engage these communities in a  serious way and understand where they’re coming from would have gone a long way towards creating trust and goodwill. And just to speak to Jennifer’s point about relationality. It’s all about relationality. This is all about trying to be in good relation to other beings\, human beings\, to human beings\, us\, to us as a species\, to the ecologies that sustain us\, and so forth. And I think history and culture are not perfect\, but just the commitment to trying to understand\, to try to communicate\, to try to empathize with peoples and other beings with different histories\, I think is really valuable in terms of getting out of the habit in which we’re trying to dominate the world. Right. Extract its resources and use it to feed our machines of productivity and prosperity.  Because we’ve seen where that is going to go\, and it’s going to go to ecocide and ultimately to the collapse of the civilization. And so it’s all too clear that we’re on that path. So I think that history and culture actually are incredibly important valuable lessons in information and ethics to offer us in that struggle to not allow that future to be foretold. I can go next\, I guess. I mean\, I’m thinking with my fellow panelists in terms of things that have already been said\, and I think that\, you know\, the kind of classic transition from plantations to petroleum in the U.S. Gulf Coast is\, you know\, it kind of haunts my understanding of history\, of energy transitions. And so what that tells us. And again\, I’m stuck with Jeff Insko’s question on my screen. Right. So what that tells us is that the past is not past. Right. And Sara Pritchard has also invoked the really important idea that for so many people\, a future of less energy or the costs of the current energy regime is already here. Right. And has been here for a long time. So the past is not past. The future is already here. And so I think I’m leaning actually more to the history than the culture part of the question. I think that the question of how one frames a narrative\, how one frames a narrative of history\, and how one tells the story of how we got here and who counts in that “we”   is crucial to what transition looks like in the future. And so an idea that has stuck with me  since I first read it is from the Nigerian   writer and public intellectual Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who says that what is important\, or the narrative mode that entrenches injustice is  starting the narrative from “secondly.” Right. And what she means by that is you begin the narrative when the violence has already happened and is normalized. Right. And so to refuse a historical narrative that begins from “secondly\,”   that begins with the violence already baked in\, I think by analogy\, I think it helps to chart a way toward a future where those modes of violence are not always already assumed. It’s hard to figure out how to add and build on to those great comments. So much has already been said. I think one thing I would add is the way many humanists are attentive to power. This is a super simple point and comment. But sometimes simple matters. Multiple forms of power in different kinds of contexts and different kinds of ways\, but understanding how that works historically\, culturally\, and so forth\, then helps us have a richer understanding when we’re debating the contemporary moment. I was kind of twitch about the lessons of history. I mean\, yes\, there are lessons of history. But then also\, you know\, I think all historians are trained to twitch at that. But I think if we have a much richer\, deeper understanding of these layers and sediments of structures and power and violence and also opportunities and resistance\, there are spaces there for thinking both creatively and pragmatically\, to kind of link my two co-panelists’ comments. \n  \nWell\, thank you so much again for talking through these ideas. I have so many more questions that I could ask.   But I’m going to turn it now over to my colleague Firat to go ahead and moderate the discussion with our audience questions. Thanks Trish. And thanks to our panelists for the really remarkable reflections that they have provided us. And of course\, as a price comes questions. I would like to start with one question I think related to our current moment of the pandemic and also related to one question we had in mind. This is from my Education City colleague Peter Martin. How does or might energy humanities engage or position the notion of well-being and thinking of Dominic’s concept of rebellion\, Sara’s evident enjoyment of dog sledding and other experiences of Arctic darkness\, Jennifer’s reading fiction\,  watching films for the planet. What is the value of playfulness and games for the energy humanities? So that’s the fun part in certain ways\, right? We could see our interest in lived experiences that turn away from the high seriousness of global energy politics. Is there a political value in that affective shift and make us feel better? \n  \nI could start us off here\, I  mean\, I think Jennifer has already talked about the importance of narratives and counter-narratives and creativity and imagination and the ways in which that can all be motivating or constraining. I think some of this affective shift when I  was thinking about this question\, for me\, I think it helps us get out of declensions narratives or nihilistic narratives\,   even if we — again\, asterisk\, who’s the “we” here — We are facing daunting circumstances in many ways that this affective shift may provide more motivation or creativity in terms of creative responses to various challenges versus a threat of inaction. I think there’s the line about   “if the ship’s sinking\, let’s  just party as the Titanic goes down.” Right. And the other thing that I was thinking about is actually going back to William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness” article. He has this line about there’s a problem with seeing all human use as abuse because it doesn’t…it fails to differentiate between different kinds of anthropocentric engagements with the natural world or non-human or more than human world or worlds. And therefore\, it becomes a simplistic binary. If we act or change\, that’s bad. Untouched wilderness supposedly is good\, except that never existed anyway. So I think this more playful register — also\,  I was thinking about Holly Jean Buck’s idea of the “Charming Anthropocene” — that maybe it provides greater motivation for people rather than feeling overwhelmed\, or the scale of issues is fundamentally not changeable or inactionable…unactionable? I don’t know\, whatever. Maybe I can pick up on Sara’s last point. Sara\, thanks so much. And this idea of sort of feeling trapped in the condition\, you know\,  watching the train in slow motion\, you know\, collide with the car and not being able to feel like you have any agency to change things. And I do think that goes back to some of the earlier comments that we had about\, you know\, about can sort of sense of impasse and also the sense of sort of imaginative\, you know\, failure and where is I rooted? One of my suggestions is that\, you know\,   what we’re up against — and we should realize that we’re up against it — is that petro-culture has filled our — for those of us privileged enough to have an abundance of energy at our disposal to live with this energy without conscience lifestyle — petro-culture has provided us with this rich sense memory archive of all these thrills and indulgences and conveniences and luxuries that petro-culture has given us. So when you talk about a radical break or a shift\, immediately\, I think people say\, but I don’t have memories of this low-carbon future. I don’t I certainly don’t have positive memories\,   but I don’t have any memories of this low-carbon future. And so thus we tend to kind of retreat back to a sense of well\, it must be impossible — or if it’s possible\, it’s a dystopia of some kind. And so we fear it. And so it’s sort of easier to imagine apocalypse than the end of petro-culture. Just people said that about capitalism.  I think the same goes for petro-culture. But this is why the humanities and especially the arts are so important. — speaking to the artists out there —   because the arts have these amazing speculative and performative techniques for creating experiences and ideas and narratives and images that could be associated\, that can kind of give us memories of these futures that we need…so desperately need. And I think there’s just you know\, I enjoy the work I do with artists\, maybe more than any\, because I think that this is where  you can maybe begin to sort of map out the possibilities for low-carbon pleasures. And honestly\, you know\, when you begin to think about it\,   many of the best things in life are low-carbon anyway. If you really begin to think about it\,  you know\, the walks outside in the sun\, the intimacies\, you know\, with your friends and partners and so forth. These are beautiful things that don’t require a lot of high carbon. When you begin to sort of re-rewire your pleasure circuits a little bit in that way\, I think it can help a lot to sort of create the sense of possibility. So it’s this again. I don’t think it is one thing. It’s incremental work sort of reorganizing our desires   and imagining sort of positive futures that  are associated with low-carbon lifestyles. So I think this is the work that has to be done. Yeah\, I can definitely build off of that with regard to what Dominic says about\,   you know\, having no memories of low-carbon futures. One of my favorite ideas from Graeme Macdonald is reading 19th-century  fiction and doing what he calls chronological backflips to understand what a low-carbon future might look like based on reading\, you know\, an earlier version of that. And so he reads 19th-century novels for an account of what it means to have to walk everywhere. And it’s a kind of delightful thought experiment. And I’m thinking of a Gayatri Spivak’s description of the work of the humanities as the non-coercive rearrangement of desire. And that’s kind of echoing what Dominic was saying about rewiring desire. And it seems to me that transition is coming. You know\, whether we like it or not. And so I think one of the  fundamental questions about energy   in energy humanities is “what  kind of transition do we want?” And so thinking about what a mindful transition to kind of echo the language of well-being\, what a just transition would look like it\, and how to take incremental steps toward getting there. And so I think that this means a redefinition of what well-being is and what we mean by well-being. What counts as well-being. And I  think it would involve those kinds of relationality is that we’ve been talking about\, and recognizing that well-being may not be the same as pleasure or what we have thought of as pleasure may be inimical to well-being. So I guess the last thing I would say to try to invoke the question of play is that\, maybe it was two…it must have been actually two years ago now I was at an event — I think Dominic must have been there as well — on solarity And what I did in my solarity workshop was\, with the help and  in the company of others\, I\, in theory\, in actuality\, but I in theory made my own solar panel. And I say “in theory\,” because it didn’t work. My solar panel didn’t work. Other people’s solar panels did work. And so I think part of what was so wonderful about this experience of making my own solar panel was letting go of the idea that what I do is\, some kind of mastery. Right. And kind of leaning into a kind of DIY mode in which I was doing things I didn’t know how to do. Right. And in the sense of play. And I think part of what was powerful to me as I was struggling in frustration to make my solar panel was the idea that the way that solar panels work is that\, you know\, the electrons are bouncing on these surfaces and they’re incredibly inefficient. Solar panels\, they kind of they transform into usable energy only a very small percentage of what’s actually happening with those electrons. And I have kind of held onto that as a metaphor for letting go of the demand for productivity. Right. Letting go of the idea that every electron bouncing in my mind must lead to something. So I think this gets both to the question that Firat raised about play. Where is the place of play? And I think play might be partly about letting go of that Cara Daggett idea of energy that Dominic mentioned that’s all about work. And we’re worrying about waste. Right. And so to think about a  way of being that isn’t just about work. And that is about play. And it is about doing things that we don’t know how to do yet. Right. \n  \nThank you so much. We have about five to six minutes left. So in the interest of time\,  I’ll try to sort of put some of the questions in a  thematic cluster. I think in a way they all point out at the unevennesses of lived experiences of energy\, especially in the Global South. I think the questions that Petra\, Diana\,  Danya\, Jeff\, in particular\, have been asking center around that question. So to start with Petra’s question\, do you agree that an everyday approach helps acknowledge fragmented experiences that are based in different energy regimes that coexist\, not just oil\, and allows for complexity of historical agency of energy actors\, who are never only producers or consumers of energy? Danya Saleh’s question: What do the panelists working in Energy Humanities think about the different green new deals\, peoples Green  New Deal\, Red Deal from the Red Nation\, they might they map out ways forward beyond riding bikes and also center reparations to the Global South. Diana’s comment also is in that line in differentiating extractivism — coal versus dam — are we also differentiating petro-violence versus hydro-violence? And finally\, I think Jeff’s question\, some of it was and in certain ways\, but worth asking still\, how do we work toward a post-petrol\, that is also a just one. \n  \nI can start and just be very quick.  I’ve actually oh\, there it is. I had lost Petra’s question\, but I want to answer it by way of a photograph from Ed Kashi. This is in the collection.  Curse of the Black Gold: 50 years of Oil in the Niger Delta. And this image is so powerful to me because it is an image of energy simultaneity. Right. So we can understand that these enormous tanks here contain fossil fuels that will be piped elsewhere and not for use in Nigeria. And so we see the kind of muscular labor of these men chopping wood to burn. So we see kind of two energy regimes operating at the same time. And so I think that I’ve lost her question again. But I think that thinking about  the unevenness in one place is\,   a really helpful way of thinking. And about the question of violence\, I would say…I think somebody else had asked about dirty-clean fuel and petro-violence versus hydro violence. And I think that the very  quick thing I would say about that   is that it feels to me\, and  this might not be right\, but it feels to me that there is   a tendency toward violence  that is inherent in scaling up. Right. So I think many kinds of energy become violent or dirty through this process of scaling up.  And I don’t know what to do about that. Right. But I feel like scale is important in thinking about those problems. I could follow on that a little bit. That’s a really interesting point\, Jennifer\, the last point about the violence of scaling up and   I think that there definitely is\, this is another one of David Hughes’s arguments as one of the things that the plantation system did was to weave violence into sort of what we would think of as globalization in a very fundamental way so that you couldn’t have that transatlantic capitalism without a whole lot of violence being waged. And so and that’s sort of a legacy that we haven’t really come to terms with a lot of ways in terms of how much it’s fed into globalization more generally. The sense that\, you know\, the translocal flows are more important than what might happen to people in the communities where resource frontiers. And I think that’s always been an issue. And so a couple of thoughts. I mean\, you know\, one thought — and this comes out of a  German solarity thinkers like Hermann Scheer — is to really sort of move towards hyper-local energy\, to really focus on\, you know\,   you use the energy you can make in your community or you can make in your home and that you don’t need the sort of apparatus of sort of long-distance energy systems. In fact\, as he saw\, like a lot of state violence and was really wrapped up in sort of\, you know\, managing those long distance flows\, like why else is the United States invading the Middle East all the time\,   if not to guarantee its petro-political\,  you know\, sort of systems? So I think that’s one model. And then there’s another model\, which may be more utopian\, but I think as we’re thinking about\, is are there ways we could move towards more ethical kinds of globalization\, more ethical kinds of trans-local relationships? Are they necessarily violent? Can we imagine that there are other models available? And I think that there are some that are out there\, you know\, that that might exist as alternatives that could be explored. But I think on the whole\, you know\, it’s probably an issue\, as you say\, Jennifer\, that really has to be thought of as a  problem of scale and how we can scale the energy transition in a way that reduces the violence of the previous energy systems. Again\, the danger of going last\, a lot’s been said\, but Dominic\, you just used the word ethical. I’m not sure if I have a lot to add in terms of of unevenness\, in equality\, power\, justice\, and so forth\, because that’s definitely been  a thread running through our presentations and the conversations and questions. And so I’m left with the question of how do “we” — again\, the problematic “we” — how do we get people to care about ethics and justice and others\, whether it’s local\, others or just… And also acknowledge the ways in which many of us are already\, you know\, are implicated in systems that are dependent on unevenness and extraction and violence in order to have energy or convenience or ease of luxury elsewhere. \n  \nThank you so much. Our time is now up. My colleague  Danyel Reiche had asked\, and I won’t expect you to answer this question\, but his question was\, what are the issues unique to Qatar and the Gulf when discussing lived everyday energy experiences? I’ll keep this question is an excuse to bring you to Doha when conditions permit. But it is also a question that\, as a research group\, we are aiming to delve into in detail. Now\, I would like to hand it over to  Dean Dallal to provide his conclusion or remarks. \n  \nThank you so much for this extremely interesting discussion and the great launch for our project.  I hope the audience will join us in future activities and I hope we will\, before long\, we’ll be able to host you here in Doha. Thank you so much. \n \n			\n			\n\n\nResources \n\n				\n				Books 			\n			\n								\nEnergy Humanities: An Anthology\, edited by Imre Szeman and Dominic Boyer\nEnergopolitics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene\, by Dominic Boyer\nFueling Culture: 101 Words for Energy and Environment\, edited by Imre Szeman\, Jennifer Wenzel\, and Patricia Yaeger\nConfluence: The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhône\, by Sara B. Pritchard\nNew Natures: Joining Environmental History with Science and Technology Studies\, edited by Dolly Jørgensen\, Finn Arne Jørgensen\, and Sara B. Pritchard\nTechnology and the Environment in History\, by Sara B. Pritchard and Carl A. Zimring \nThe Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature\, by Jennifer Wenzel\nBulletproof: Afterlives of Anticolonial Prophecy in South Africa and Beyond\, by Jennifer Wenzel\nLiving Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century\, by Stephanie LeMenager\nSweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History\, by Sidney W. Mintz \nA Billion Black Anthropocenes or None\, by Kathryn Yusoff\nThe Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels\, Thermodynamics\, and the Politics of Work\, by Cara New Daggett\nCarbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil\, by Timothy Mitchell\nLifeblood: Oil\, Freedom\, and the Forces of Capital\, by Matthew T. Huber\nThe Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural\, Industrial\, and Terrorist Disasters\, by Charles Perrow\nThe Multichannel Retail Handbook\, by Chris Jones\nPower Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest\, by Andrew Needham\nThe Work of Invisibility: Radiation Hazards and Occupational Health in South African Uranium Production\, by Gabrielle Hecht\nThe Oil Lamp: Poems\, by Ogaga Ifowodo\nOrientalism\, by Edward W. Said\nCurse of The Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta\, by Ed Kashi\n\n			\n						\n				Articles  			\n			\n								\nWenzel\, Jennifer. “How to read for oil.” Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities 1\, no. 3 (2014): 156-161.\nCronon\, William. “The trouble with wilderness: or\, getting back to the wrong nature.” Environmental history 1\, no. 1 (1996): 7-28.\nBuck\, Holly Jean. “On the possibilities of a charming Anthropocene.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 105\, no. 2 (2015): 369-377.\n\n			\n						\n				Films 			\n			\n								\nNot Ok – Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/everyday-energy-approaches-to-lived-experience/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Environmental Studies,Panels,Regional Studies
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210419T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210419T133000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210517T122127Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T062304Z
UID:10001195-1618833600-1618839000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture in South Asia
DESCRIPTION:Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to the effects of climate change. The change in average temperature\, rainfall\, changes in pests and diseases\, variations in the atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and ground-level ozone concentrations\, as well as changes in sea level can have a direct and negative impact on food production and farming communities. Despite technological advances made in the 20th century\, climate change still has a linear and often adverse impact on agricultural productivity. While this is a global phenomenon\, South Asia is one of the most susceptible regions to the effects of climate change. Afghanistan\, Bangladesh\, Bhutan\, India\, Maldives\, Nepal\, Pakistan\, and Sri Lanka together comprise one of the world’s most densely populated regions and are all also highly reliant on agriculture as an economic sector. About 57 percent of South Asia’s landmass is devoted to farming\, while nearly 60 percent of its population is engaged in agricultural production in one form or another. Much of this activity is undertaken by vulnerable small landholders\, while women also play a significant role. According to Food and Agriculture Organization data\, in India\, Pakistan\, Bangladesh\, Nepal\, Sri Lanka\, and Bhutan\, more than 60 percent of women work in the agricultural sector. An increasing population\, natural resource degradation\, and the impact of high rates of poverty means that the region is already contending with food insecurity. This will certainly be amplified to reach critical levels with the anticipated effects of climate change. While direct impacts are associated with the rise in temperatures\, indirect impacts include insufficient availability of water\, due to decline in annual rainfall and inadequate inputs of water\, and changing soil moisture status and pest and disease incidence due to lack of enough fertilizers. The current situation has significantly impacted small-holder rainfed farmers who constitute the majority of farmers in this region and hold low financial and technical capacity to adapt to climate variability and change. The agricultural productivity of the region is in decline\, and with fluctuation in crop production and a rise in market prices\, the ongoing agrarian crisis is predicted to increase food insecurity and poverty in South Asian countries.  \n\n\n\nSpeakers: \n\nVaibhav Chaturvedi is a fellow at The Council on Energy\, Environment and Water and an economist who leads The Council’s work on Low-Carbon Pathways. His research focuses on energy and climate change mitigation policy issues\, especially those impacting India\, within integrated assessment modeling framework of the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) \n\nN.H. Ravindranath is a professor at the Center for Sustainable Technologies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore\, India. His research is focused on dimensions of Climate Change: Mitigation Assessment\, Carbon Sequestration Modeling\, Impact of Climate Change and Vulnerability Assessment in Forest and Agro-ecosystems. He has also worked on Bioenergy\, Biofuels and Biomass Production\, and Citizen Science.  \n\nModerator: Anatol Lieven\, Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-agriculture-in-south-asia/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Environmental Studies,Panels
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210525T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210525T190000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210603T082011Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072235Z
UID:10001203-1621962000-1621969200@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education Virtual Working Group II
DESCRIPTION:On May 25\, 2021\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University Qatar held the second virtual working group under its research initiative on The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education. This virtual working group was the first in a series of meetings that will be held between May and August 2021\, to present and discuss the chapters contributions for the project. During the May meeting two papers were presented and received feedback and comments from the group. \n\nThe first paper titled\, “American Sociology’s Promotion of the Industrial Education Model and the Reification of Race\,” was presented by Dr. Julia Bates. The paper addresses American sociology’s theoretical promotion of the Industrial Education model. The paper reviews three main sociologists’ use of sociological theory to advocate for the industrial education model. After the first World War\, the U.S. Department of Labor worked with a commercial philanthropic institution called the Phelps Stokes Fund to transfer educational policies designed for African Americans to West Africa and South Africa. The US government used and promoted the industrial education model used at Tuskegee and the Hampton institutes for African American education. This model emphasized manual labor\, Christian character formation\, and political passivity as a form of racial uplift. The model heavily relied upon prominent theories in the sociology of race to propagate this model. Thomas Jesse Jones\, who was the educational director of the Phelps Stokes Fund\, in particular advocated for the transnational development of the model. W.E.B. Du Bois\, a prominent sociologist who was marginalized by the U.S government and American sociology\, critiques this model in his works The Crisis and Darkwater. Bates argues that from the works of Jones and Dubois two different sociological conceptions of race emerge. The author will examine the U.S. state’s decision to link African Americans and Africans as similar objects of political intervention and look at Jones’s use of sociology to promote the model’s effect on sociological theories of race. \n\nDr. Elif Ekin Akşit presented the second paper titled\, “Industrial Education in the Late Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Gender\, Egalitarianism\, and Mathematics.” The paper traces the history of industrial schools in the Ottoman Empire and their subsequent continuation in modern Turkey. Dr. Akşit contends that the development of industrial education in the late Ottoman empire and modern Turkey took place within the context of the transformation from an empire to the republic\, and adopting policies and practices of the West became the part and parcel of resisting colonialism. The paper discusses the development of the Girls Industrial Schools in the late Ottoman Empire and their importance in the general development of technical/scientific education and its relation to the ideology. The author proposes to study the question of what it meant to be industrial in the East and West\, as well as trace the continuation of the industrial schools in the late-20th and early 21st centuries. These key queries will be addressed with the help of the data collected from students’ accounts as well as state documents on these schools. The article primarily focuses on the gendered dimension of the industrial schools because the author argues that their continuation in the Turkish republic made these girls’ schools the main pillar for establishing the revolution on the societal level. \n\nCIRS will convene the next paper workshop for the project in June where three additional paper contributions will be presented and discussed. \n\nFor the meeting agenda\, click here.For the participants’ biographies\, click here.For the research initiative\, click here.\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\nElif Ekin Akşit\, Ankara University\, TurkeyMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDanya Al-Saleh\, University of Wisconsin–MadisonLukas Allemann\, University of LaplandHossein Ayazi\, Williams CollegeZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJulia Bates\, Sacred Heart UniversityMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJoshua Frank Cárdenas\, California Indian Nations CollegeOliver Charbonneau\, University of GlasgowBronwen Everill\, University of CambridgeArun Kumar\, University of NottinghamJanne Laht\, University of HelsinkiSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, Free Berlin UniversitySarah Steinbock-Pratt\, University of AlabamaKarine Walther\, Georgetown University in QatarElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarHelge Wendt\, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) Berlin\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-gospel-of-work-and-money-global-histories-of-industrial-education-virtual-working-group-ii/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Research Workshops,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210608T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210608T190000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210616T062349Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T072229Z
UID:10001205-1623171600-1623178800@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education Virtual Working Group III
DESCRIPTION:April 13		\n\n					\n				 @ 			\n			\n				1:00 pm			\n		\n									\n					 – 				\n			\n							\n					2:00 pm				\n			\n						 \n\n\nOn June 8\, 2021\, the Center for International and Regional Studies convened a third virtual working group under its research initiative on The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education. During this paper workshop two chapter contributions were presented and discussed\, which received in-depth feedback from the group. \n\nDr. Bronwen Everill\, presented the first paper titled\, ““The Dignity of Labor”: Liberian Industrial Education in West Africa.” The chapter looks at the role of Liberia within West Africa\, as a site of educational innovation and the launch of US state-based missionary and educational enterprises. The author explores the close internal relationship between Liberia and Sierra Leonean and the use of education as a way of maintaining Liberian sovereignty. By the end of the 19th century\, Liberian engineers were training African workers for plantation labor\, domestic housework\, and for skilled and unskilled industrial labor in places as far away as German Togo\, British Nigeria\, and the Belgian Congo. At the start of the 20th century\, Liberians had become part of a mobile class of African engineers\, missionaries\, and educators spreading American values and ideas on the continent. The paper addressed the literature about Liberia and its use of education in their struggle for sovereignty and independence. The author argues that Liberians used whatever means at their disposal to ensure that Liberia was not incorporated into the British or French Empire\, by ensuring their effective control over and domination of the indigenous populations of Liberia. \n\nNext Dr. Helge Wendt presented his paper titled\, “Industrial-Technological Education in Spanish America during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century.” The paper provides a comparative study of early industrial education schools in five Latin American countries i.e. Chile\, Argentina\, Mexico\, Cuba\, and Colombia. These schools of Arts and Trades were opened in the 19th century with the goal of training young men\, and later young women\, in practical and technical fields of production. The author states that the history of industrial education in these countries can be divided into different initiatives related to higher education\, primary education\, professional training\, and further training. In this comparative study\, Wendt wants to understand the school foundations and subsequent reforms in their local\, inter-local\, national and international contexts. School regulations\, teachers and student recruitments play a special role in the analysis of the different developments. Also\, connections of the school with the existing school system and the hopes for stimuli for the economic activity in the respective country will be studied. \n\nThe third paper workshop for the project is scheduled for the end of June\, in which three scholars will present their draft papers and receive commentary. \n\n\nFor the meeting agenda\, click here.\n\n\n\nFor the participants’ biographies\, click here.\n\n\n\nFor the research initiative\, click here.\n\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\n\nMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar\n\n\n\nDanya Al-Saleh\, University of Wisconsin–Madison\n\n\n\nHossein Ayazi\, Williams College\n\n\n\nZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar\n\n\n\nJulia Bates\, Sacred Heart University\n\n\n\nMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar\n\n\n\nOliver Charbonneau\, University of Glasgow\n\n\n\nBronwen Everill\, University of Cambridge\n\n\n\nArun Kumar\, University of Nottingham\n\n\n\nSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar\n\n\n\nDolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, Free Berlin University\n\n\n\nSarah Steinbock-Pratt\, University of Alabama\n\n\n\nKarine Walther\, Georgetown University in Qatar\n\n\n\nElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in Qatar\n\n\n\nHelge Wendt\, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) Berlin\n\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-gospel-of-work-and-money-global-histories-of-industrial-education-virtual-working-group-iii/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Research Workshops,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210629T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210629T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210707T064725Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240313T132445Z
UID:10001207-1624986000-1624995000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education Virtual Working Group IV
DESCRIPTION:On June 29\, 2021\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) convened the fourth virtual workshop under its research initiative on The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education. During this paper workshop\, three project contributors presented their draft papers and received in-depth feedback from the group. \n\nDr. Arun Kumar initiated the discussion with the presentation of his paper titled\, “Christian Labour and the Cawnpore Mission Industrial School.” The chapter traces the history of the Cawnpore Mission Industrial School and examines the detailed relationship that Christian missionaries in India developed with labor and industries in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Cawnpore School belonged to the Society for the Propagation of Gospels in Foreign Parts (SPG)\, which was a missionary society of the Church of England and had a significant presence in the British Empire. The Cawnpore Industrial School along with providing special industrial courses trained Christian converts into industrious and useful workers and disciplined them to become modern workers. Kumar proposes to explore the industrial school’s mission\, which was an institution part of what Christian missionaries called ‘industrial mission/work’. The author argues that these schools were the practical results of the close nexus of colonial Christianity\, capitalism\, and native labor. Using the Cawnpore Mission Industrial School as a case study the author plans to unfold this argument through a local history of the school. \n\nDr. Mishal Khan and Zahra Babar presented the next paper titled\, “(Im)mobile and (Un)skilled: The Paradox of Technical Education and the Pakistani Migrant in the Gulf.” In this chapter\, the authors situate contemporary forms of labor migration within the longer history of capitalism connecting South Asia and the Gulf. Colonial era practices around the distribution and reallocation of labor and methods of disciplining and training docile workforces were rooted in particular racial imaginings and valuations of South Asian workers. Providing a case study of Pakistan’s current efforts to “upskill” their citizenry through technical education and thus enhance their chances for success in the Gulf\, the authors draw connections between the present and past marginalized role of the South Asian workers\, paying attention to the colonial and postcolonial policies and infrastructures that have maintained these valuations even while purporting to condemn them.  \n\nDr. Christine Whyte presented the last paper of the workshop\, titled\, ““He looks wistfully at shore”: empire\, slavery and the training of boys on-board the HMS Mars\, 1869-1929.” The article details the history and experiences of the children who were recruited to live and serve on-board the HMS Mars\, a certified industrial school “training ship” in Dundee\, Scotland. Dr. Whyte writes that the policy of confining destitute\, and criminally sentenced children to a residential training ship emerged from three different trends in Victorian Britain: carceral\, philanthropic\, and imperial. There is an interconnection between poverty\, criminalization\, and empire\, which can be seen in the function and form of the industrial school created in Britain and the creation and maintenance of a reformatory system of ‘training for empire’ which used criminally charged poor children as enforcers of imperial power globally. The chapter will attempt to uncover some of the carceral and imperial influences on industrial education for poor and homeless boys in Scotland. Dr. Whyte states that the paper will try to shed light on the experiences of the children that served on the ship\, the views of their parents\, as well as the home communities\, as these have remained obscure. \n\nThe next paper workshop for the project is scheduled to take place in July\, in which three additional contributors will present and discuss their draft papers. \n\nFor the meeting agenda\, click here.For the participants’ biographies\, click here.For the research initiative\, click here.\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\nMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarHossein Ayazi\, Williams CollegeZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJulia Bates\, Sacred Heart UniversityMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarOliver Charbonneau\, University of GlasgowBronwen Everill\, University of CambridgeMishal Khan\, The University of Texas AustinArun Kumar\, University of NottinghamSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, Free Berlin UniversitySarah Steinbock-Pratt\, University of AlabamaKarine Walther\, Georgetown University in QatarElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarHelge Wendt\, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) BerlinChristine Whyte\, University of Glasgow\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-gospel-of-work-and-money-global-histories-of-industrial-education-virtual-working-group-iv/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Research Workshops,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210713T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210713T193000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20210801T061659Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240313T132413Z
UID:10001210-1626195600-1626204600@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education Virtual Working Group V
DESCRIPTION:The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) convened the fifth virtual workshop under its research initiative\, The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education\, on July 13\, 2021. During this workshop\, three project contributors presented their draft papers and received in-depth feedback from the group. \n\nThe group discussion was initiation by Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, who presented his article titled\, “Industrial Education in Korea from the 1880s to the 1930s.” The chapter looks at the evolution of industrial education in Korea while it was under Japanese colonial rule. The author argues that during this period a multilayered education system existed in Korea. The industrial education model was built by the missionaries and the YMCA\, to instill Koreans with a Protestant work ethic and teach them about industrial labor and capitalism. However\, many of the Korean nationalist leaders who had converted to Christianity\, saw industrialization as a requirement to attain “civilization and enlightenment” or “self-strengthening.” Using a variety of sources\, such as the writings of Korean educators\, missionary reports as well as official colonial documents\, Neuhaus aims to explore how the missionary efforts for industrial education and colonial education policy are interconnected. The chapter will examine the industrial education policies set up by the Japanese colonial government\, as well as look at the private learning facilities set up by the YMCA in Korea during the early decades of the 20th century. \n\nLukas Alleman’s chapter titled “Boarding School Education in the Soviet Arctic – Rationalizing and Industrializing Away Indigenous Livelihoods\,” examines the Soviet Union’s industrial educational efforts targeting indigenous Arctic communities. The author suggests that there are ideological commonalities between modern ‘Western’ nations and the Soviet State when it comes to the treatment of indigenous communities\, and their assimilation and integration via educational systems. The paper draws on ethnographic material to provide an empirically-based account of the Sámi\, in the Kola Peninsula\, who in multiple ways were impacted by different forms of state efforts to mainstream them into Soviet economic life. These development policies among others included intensified boarding schooling of the indigenous children which almost never played out as originally intended and contributed to urbanizing indigenous livelihoods and dissolving family structures. \n\nHossein Ayazi presented the last paper titled\, “Plantation Pedagogies\, Counterrevolutionary Geographies: Agricultural Development\, Industrial Education\, and Firestone Natural Rubber Co.” The chapter looks at the changing nature of U.S.-Liberia relations and the work of Firestone Natural Rubber Company within the independent West African republic in order to trace the specific social processes of reproduction that helped restage colonial possession\, plantation dispossession\, and differentially racialized devaluation toward the emerging terms of international finance and development under U.S. leadership. Using Booker Washington Agricultural and Industrial Institute (BWI)\, which was founded in 1929 in Kakata\, Liberia\, as a case study\, the author details United States’ agricultural education and manual training efforts within Liberia and argues that by the mid-20th century\, the “gospel of work and money” professed by U.S. business leaders\, state officials\, reformers\, social scientists and others became the gospel of national independence\, economic internationalism\, and bureaucratic rationality\, thus containing the convergent anti-colonial and anti-capitalist insurgences that characterized the agrarian periphery of the U.S. and European empires across the first half of the 20th century. \n\nThe last paper workshop for the project will be held in Fall 2021. \n\nFor the meeting agenda\, click here.For the participants’ biographies\, click here.For the research initiative\, click here.\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\nElif Ekin Akşit\, Ankara University\, TurkeyMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarLukas Alleman\, University of LaplandHossein Ayazi\, Williams CollegeZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarJulia Bates\, Sacred Heart UniversityMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarOliver Charbonneau\, University of GlasgowBronwen Everill\, University of CambridgeMishal Khan\, The University of Texas AustinArun Kumar\, University of NottinghamSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, Free Berlin UniversityKarine Walther\, Georgetown University in QatarHelge Wendt\, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) Berlin\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-gospel-of-work-and-money-global-histories-of-industrial-education-virtual-working-group-v/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Research Workshops,Race & Society,Regional Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/07/1920x450-3.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210921T170000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210921T190000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20211007T064538Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240313T132406Z
UID:10001212-1632243600-1632250800@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education Virtual Working Group VI
DESCRIPTION:On September 21\, 2021\, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) hosted the final paper workshop under its research initiative\, The Gospel of Work and Money: Global Histories of Industrial Education. During the meeting\, two draft papers were presented and comprehensively discussed\, by the convened scholars. \n\nDr. Sarah Steinbock-Pratt\, initiated the group discussion by presenting her paper titled\, “It Is the Work That Counts – Industrial Education in the Philippines.” The paper provided a comprehensive history of industrial education in the Philippines and examined its role and importance as a tool used by the US colonizers to pacify the Filipinos. The author contended that industrial education became a direct way to control the labor and economically develop the Philippines. Though different schooling models were developed for Christians and non-Christians populations\, by 1909-1910 industrial education had become central to the education system in the Philippines and remained so even after the Monroe report. The model of industrial education implemented in the Philippines\, by the US\, had its roots in and was adopted from educations systems developed for Native Americans\, African Americans\, and the Spanish industrial schools. The author argued that the public-school system in the Philippines was connected to other institutions\, such as the penal system that were also attempting to shape and control labor. The Bilibid prison in Manila\, which was established by the Spanish and later taken over by the American colonial state\, utilized the same rhetoric of uplift\, reform\, and tutelage as the public schools\, to control\, discipline\, and direct learning and labor\, among the Filipinos. \n\nDanya Al-Saleh presented her paper titled\, “Technical Petro-Education and the Future of Fossil-Fueled Capitalism in Qatar\,” which looked at a specific technical training program offered by the College of North Atlantic- Qatar (CNA-Q)\, a satellite campus of a Canadian community college in Qatar. The college offers a Technical Certificate Program\, which is designed in partnership with Qatar Petroleum (QP) to prepare Qatari students to work as entry-level technicians for the company. The author placed and contextualized this program within the longer history of technical and vocational education in the Qatar’s oil and gas industry. The paper provided that technical and vocational education has historically been a contested space in Qatar\, particularly as development in the country depends on immigrant labor. Al-Saleh argues that the underlying contradiction in CNAQ/QP’s program is that it is designed to produce Qatari manual labor for the oil and gas industry in an era when the country’s ruling class are promoting education as a mechanism for producing Qataris who will manage and innovate a future knowledge economy. She examined two ways in which this contradiction in the contemporary moment reveals unresolved conflicts over technical petro-education in Qatar; the complex relationship between national and “foreign” technical labor and the clash of capitalism with the reforms to encourage transferability and upward mobility for the program’s students. \n\nFrom May to September 2021\, CIRS hosted five paper workshops for authors to present their draft chapters and receive commentary from the group. CIRS plans to publish these research papers in an edited collection in the near future. \n\nFor the meeting agenda\, click here.For the participants’ biographies\, click here.For the research initiative\, click here.\n\nParticipants and Discussants: \n\nElif Ekin Akşit\, Ankara University\, TurkeyMaram Al-Qershi\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDanya Al-Saleh\, University of Wisconsin–MadisonHossein Ayazi\, Williams CollegeZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarMisba Bhatti\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarOliver Charbonneau\, University of GlasgowMishal Khan\, The University of Texas AustinArun Kumar\, University of NottinghamJanne Laht\, University of HelsinkiSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarDolf-Alexander Neuhaus\, Free Berlin UniversitySarah Steinbock-Pratt\, University of AlabamaKarine Walther\, Georgetown University in QatarElizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS – Georgetown University in QatarHelge Wendt\, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) BerlinClyde Wilcox\, Georgetown University in Qatar\n\nArticle by Misba Bhatti\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/the-gospel-of-work-and-money-global-histories-of-industrial-education-virtual-working-group-vi/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Regional Studies
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210930T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210930T203000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20211017T073251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240313T132401Z
UID:10001214-1633028400-1633033800@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Activism in Exile: Diasporic Communities in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings
DESCRIPTION:The Arab uprisings\, which saw the mobilization of millions of citizens across the Middle East and North Africa\, produced new exiled communities at a massive scale. Refugees made their way to countries all over the world\, escaping economic pressures\, political repression and state violence. In host countries\, the new (and old) diasporic communities have often exercised what scholars define as “voice after exit.” Enabling conditions in the host state can allow for new forms of social and political mobilization and solidarity-building that are difficult to achieve under repressive regimes at home. But anti-regime diaspora activism after the onset of the 2011 Arab uprisings demonstrates that combating authoritarianism from afar is a challenging and complex phenomenon. Regimes have increasingly demonstrated a determination and capacity to repress diaspora activism through relying on their own formal and informal transnational networks of supporters. Middle Eastern diasporic communities are also far from homogenous\, as their experiences\, conditions\, identities\, agendas\, interests and organizational forms may vary widely. Polarization among Middle Eastern diasporas is rife. Diasporas’ capacity to mobilize successfully and play an influential role is also highly dependent on the political and social conditions in their host state. \n\nThis panel of scholars\, activists\, and practitioners seeks to explore the demography of these recent diasporas\, their forms of community organization\, and modes of political mobilization. Among other things\, this panel asks what is “new” about these recently formed exiled communities\, especially in light of the historical legacies of political organization by diaspora communities since the latter half of the twentieth century. The panel also seeks to explore the role of the state in two contexts. How do local political and socioeconomic conditions in the host states as well as the changing contours of authoritarianism in the countries of origin impact the forms of mobilization that these communities have pursued in recent years? Other themes to be explored include changing notions of political agency and citizenship rights\, the role of transnational networks and civil society organizations\, the impact of digital communication technologies\, transformations in youth culture among exiled communities\, and identifying new ideological and intellectual trends within diaspora communities. \n\n\n\n\n\nFeaturing\n\nNoha Aboueldahab is a nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings and a fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. She is an award-winning specialist in transitional justice and the author of Transitional Justice and the Prosecution of Political Leaders in the Arab Region: A comparative study of Egypt\, Libya\, Tunisia and Yemen (Hart\, 2017). Her most recent Brookings piece discusses how Western policymakers can engage the new Arab diasporas. Her forthcoming book examines the role of the new Arab diasporas in transitional justice and accountability. Aboueldahab is Co-Chair of the Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Interest Group at the American Society of International Law. \n\nNadwa Al-Dawsari is a researcher\, conflict practitioner\, and policy analyst with over 20 years of field experience in peacebuilding\, nonprofit management\, and conflict-sensitive development. Areas of expertise include business development\, managing organizational start-up and growth\, program assessment and evaluation\, conflict analysis\, tribes and informal governance\, nonstate armed actors\, and security sector reform.   \n\nDana Moss is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California\, Irvine. Her research and teaching focus on collective resistance against repression\, authoritarianism\, revolutions; transnational activism\, diasporas\, immigrants; and the Middle Eastern region. Her current book project\, The Arab Spring Abroad\, investigates how and to what extent anti-regime diaspora activists in the US and Great Britain mobilized to support the 2011 uprisings in Libya\, Syria\, and Yemen. Her next book project will examine how and why members of military institutions resist participating in state- sanctioned violence. To date\, her work has been published in venues such as the American Sociological Review\, Social Forces\, Social Problems\, Mobilization: An International Journal\, and Comparative Migration Studies. She comes to the University of Notre Dame from the University of Pittsburgh (2016-20)\, where she was awarded the 2020 David and Tina Bellet Excellence in Teaching Award. \n\nLea Muller-Funk is a Research Fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies\, where her research focuses on migration aspirations and drivers in (forced) migration\, migration governance\, and diaspora politics with a geographical focus on the Middle East\, North Africa and Europe. Previously\, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. Muller-Funk earned a joint PhD in Comparative Politics and Arabic Studies (summa cum laude) from the Centre des Recherches Internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po Paris and the Department for Near Eastern Studies at Vienna University in 2016.  \n\nAbdullah Al-Arian (Moderator) is an associate professor of History at Georgetown University in Qatar. He received his doctorate in History from Georgetown University and his master’s degree in Sociology of Religion from the London School of Economics and his BA in Political Science from Duke University. He is editor of the “Critical Currents in Islam” page on the Jadaliyya e-zine. He is also a frequent contributor to the Al-Jazeera English network and website. His first book\, entitled Answering the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Sadat’s Egypt was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. Professor Al-Arian teaches introductory courses on the history of the Middle East\, as well as advanced topics courses covering the history of modern Egypt\, Islamic social movements\, and the history of US policy towards the Middle East. \n\nSami Hermez (Moderator) is the director of the Liberal Arts Program and associate professor in residence of anthropology at Northwestern University in Qatar. His research focuses on the everyday life of political violence in Lebanon\, and his broader concerns include the study of social movements\, the state\, memory\, security\, and human rights in the Arab World. Hermez has held posts as visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University\, visiting professor of Contemporary International Issues at the University of Pittsburgh\, visiting professor of anthropology at Mt. Holyoke College\, and postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Lebanese Studies\, St. Antony’s College\, Oxford University. His professional experience includes work with the United Nations Capital Development Fund and World Bank in New York and Sana’a\, Yemen\, as well as a stint with the UN Development Program in Beirut. At NU-Q he teaches classes in anthropology that include topics such as violence\, gender and anthropology in the Middle East. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/activism-in-exile-diasporic-communities-in-the-wake-of-the-arab-uprisings/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Distingushed Lectures,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20211018T183000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20211018T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20211021T115733Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240313T132419Z
UID:10001445-1634581800-1634587200@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Reducing Islamophobic Attitudes? The Effect of Mohamed Salah and the World Cup 2022
DESCRIPTION:On October 18\, 2021\, CIRS hosted a webinar titled “Reducing Islamophobic Attitudes? The Effect of Mohamed Salah and the World Cup 2022” by Salma Mousa\, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University and a Georgetown University in Qatar alumna (Class of 2012). The talk was part of the CIRS lecture series under the “Building a Legacy: The Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022” research initiative. Mousa’s talk was based on previous research she conducted with her colleagues Ala’ Alrababa’h\, Will Marble\, and Alexander Siegel\, titled “Can Exposure to Celebrities Reduce Prejudice? Estimating the Effect of Mohamed Salah on Islamophobic Attitudes and Behaviors\,” which was published in the American Political Science Review in 2021. \n\nMousa’s lecture revolved around answering a central research question: “Can exposure to celebrities from stigmatized groups reduce prejudice?” In order to address this\, Mousa and her research partners took the elite Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah as a case study in an attempt to quantify his effects on reducing Islamophobia. Salah was used as a case study\, not only because he is one of the world’s most successful contemporary football players\, but because he declares his Islamic faith in a public manner\, both on and off the pitch. \n\nIn order to test their central hypothesis\, Mousa and her colleagues approached the topic through a “contact theory” lens\, which was first presented by Gordon Allport in relation to racial segregation in the United States. The theory states that contact across group lines can reduce prejudice under certain conditions\, such as when this contact places people on equal footing\, when it is endorsed by communal authorities and social norms\, and\, most importantly\, when the contact involves people cooperating for a common goal. These kinds of contacts across group lines is well suited to building understanding and friendships\, and\, ultimately\, to reducing prejudice. \n\nUsing data on hate crime reports throughout England and 15 million tweets from British football fans\, Mousa and her colleagues found that after Salah joined Liverpool F.C.\, hate crimes in the Liverpool area dropped by 16% compared with a synthetic control. In addition\, Liverpool F.C. fans halved their rates of posting anti-Muslim tweets relative to fans of other top-flight clubs. An original survey experiment suggests that the salience of Salah’s Muslim identity enabled positive feelings toward Salah to generalize to Muslims more broadly. Their findings provide support for the parasocial contact hypothesis—indicating that positive exposure to out-group celebrities can spark real-world behavioral changes in prejudice. \n\nAbout the speaker \n\nSalma Mousa is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. An Egyptian scholar of migration\, conflict\, and social cohesion\, Salma typically partners with governments and NGOs in the Middle East and beyond to explore these questions. Her research has been published in Science and the American Political Science Review\, and profiled by The Economist and PBS NOVA. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 2020\, and her BSFS in International Politics from Georgetown University in Qatar.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/reducing-islamophobic-attitudes-the-effect-of-mohamed-salah-and-the-world-cup-2022/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Dialogue Series,FIFA World Cup Series,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20211021T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20211021T160000
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20211110T070532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230504T095208Z
UID:10001446-1634824800-1634832000@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:CURA Workshop: Methodology and Bias: Reflections from Food Security Research in Ethiopia
DESCRIPTION:On October 21\, 2021\, CIRS hosted a CURA workshop titled\, “Methodology and Bias: Reflections from Food Security Research in Ethiopia” led by Professor Logan Cochrane\, Associate Professor in the College of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. Via interactive exercises and group discussions\, Cochrane guided thirteen GUQ and NUQ students to reflect on questions of power and their own positionality as researchers. One of the aims of the workshop was to demonstrate how food distribution and production is a politicized process that involves multiple actors with varying levels of decision-making power. \n\nDuring the interactive group discussions\, students were encouraged to think like policymakers and engage with datasets from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations to identify which decisions such surveys would enable them to make. Cochrane explained how both food security scholars and practitioners agree that equitable\, transparent\, and rigorous research methods inform decisions. He underlined how qualitative methods can complement quantitative data and explained how to choose which method is more suitable according to the size and scope of a research project. \n\n	\n						\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n					\n\n\nDrawing on examples from his research on food security amongst rural Ethiopian farmers\, Cochrane demonstrated the strengths and limitations of survey research and proposed how new\, community-centered methods are more suitable for studying the lived realities of local communities. He highlighted how local engagements and interactions enabled his research team to gain insight into how rainfall patterns\, debt\, and migration—factors often not discernable in macro-trends in quantitative research—impact local patterns and behaviors. While survey research studies macro-level trends\, a community-centered approach zooms in on the lived realities of people\, producing nuanced data and analysis. Specifically\, a knowledge co-production approach through questions\, conversations\, and interactions at the community level helps discern hidden patterns and behaviors\, providing valuable data to support development programs in rural areas. Cochrane demonstrated the importance of studying sub-national trends in order to understand and address local challenges. \n\n\n“The session was extremely engaging – I felt involved throughout and it was unlike what I had expected. The material about knowledge co-production has really caught my attention. Its utilization in working together with local stakeholders to capture and produce novel and nuanced data seems to me as an interesting methodology which I am trying to learn more about.”  \n– Pragyan Acharya\, class of 2024.  \n\nIn conclusion\, Cochrane argued that researchers are not apolitical and thus need to engage responsibly with local communities. He explained that the strength of community-centered methods is how it involves local actors as partners in co-producing knowledge. Ultimately\, he argued\, the key research question is determined by these interactions. Cochrane reminded students about bias and the need for research that is inclusive and comprehensive that\, “When one does not ask certain questions\, then that data becomes invisible.” This reinforces the significance of using the appropriate research method for a compelling research project. \n\nArticle by Khushboo Shah\, senior at GUQ
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/cura-workshop-methodology-and-bias-reflections-from-food-security-research-in-ethiopia/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:Student Engagement
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20211121T124500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20211121T134500
DTSTAMP:20260404T224942
CREATED:20211206T101642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240313T132325Z
UID:10001453-1637498700-1637502300@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:It's Getting Hot in Here: Changing Climate Change
DESCRIPTION:On November 21\, 2021\, GU-Q students presented their research on international systems for managing global climate change at a hybrid CURA Lunch Talk titled\, “It’s Getting Hot in Here: Changing Climate Change.”  Six first-year students represented the group work of their classmates and covered topics on: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)\, IPCC 6th assessment report\, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Council of the Parties (COPs)\, Qatar’s position on climate change management\, and COP26. \n\n	\n						\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n								\n						\n					\n											\n		\n		\n			\n					\n\n			\n					\n					\n\n\nThe IPCC was described by Hind Al-Mohannadi (class of 2025) as the “Guardian of Climate Science.” As such\, the IPCC produces assessment reports every five to eight years. The IPCC is a coalition of scientists and governments. The core scientists of the IPCC review all of the published climate science literature and produce assessment reports to highlight the areas of consensus in the science. They focus on studies that have a level of consensus of 99 percent or greater\, which means the hypothesized outcome of a study is virtually certain. Maya Al-Kawari (class of 2025) presented the findings of the last IPCC assessment report (Assessment Report 6\, Working Group I). She highlighted a statement of the report according to which it is “unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere\, ocean and land.” She then showed a chart that illustrated the near linear relationship between the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions and global warming for five hypothetical carbon-emission scenarios until the year 2050. The chart shows that the global temperature will undoubtedly increase\, it is only the temperature range that remains to be seen based on how effective actions to reduce carbon emissions are taken now (see figure 1 below). \n\nSource: IPCC AR 6 Working Group 1\n\nAnother international body relating to climate change is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Samantha Facun (class of 2025) explained that this is a monitoring and reviewing group consisting of 197 parties\, including all UN member states and the European Union (EU). The COP is an annual gathering of the parties in which they try to work towards joint agreements or protocols to address the impacts of climate change. For example\, the Kyoto Protocol\, adopted in 1997 and fully ratified in 2005 aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five percent over five years. The Paris Agreement (2015) is another example of an outcome from a COP\, in which signatories pledged to limit warming to no more than two degrees Celsius\, with a preferred temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Some parties form alliances to better lobby for their particular interests\, for example\, the Alliance of Small Island States\, the High Ambition Coalition\, and the Arab States. Unfortunately\, data shows that the agreements that come out of COP meetings are very limited in their effectiveness (see figure 2 below). \n\nSource: International Energy Agency\n\nMoving further in to the view of Qatar in particular\, Pei Ying Tsai (class of 2025) presented an overall picture of Qatar’s position toward the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol\, to which Qatar is a signatory. Consistent with global trends\, Qatar’s greenhouse emissions did not decrease after the Kyoto Protocol or Paris Agreement came into effect. Qatar\, a small state\, ranks number thirty-eight globally in amount of carbon dioxide emitted based on its territorial size. However\, Qatar ranks number one globally in terms of carbon dioxide emissions per capita. On the positive side\, relative to the rest of the GCC\, Qatar’s climate debt (the debt owed by developed countries to developing countries for the damage caused by their disproportionately large contributions to climate change) has decreased significantly more than the other Gulf countries. In the recent COP26\, Qatar pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by twenty-five percent by 2030 – a mere nine years from now. It is planning to do this through significant actions taken in the areas of infrastructure and transport\, water and waste management\, and awareness. \n\nConcluding the presentation\, Angelo Castiello (class of 2025)\, highlighted the limitations of COP26 and the international systems for managing climate change. Climate change faces a notorious “free rider” problem\, with poor commitment from the greatest emitters of greenhouse gases\, which are also the richest countries. The COP delegates are countries\, but also industries. Notably\, the COP26 delegates associated with fossil fuel industries outnumbered the national delegations (see figure 3 below). \n\nSource: Global Witness\, BBC\n\nThe overall takeaway message from the event is that despite the international attention towards and efforts to assuage global warming and the impacts of climate change\, international agreements and governmental proclamations are not going to be enough. We as individuals must make the collective decisions in our daily lives that have potential for lasting impact. \n\nArticle by: Elizabeth Wanucha\, CIRS Operations Manager
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/its-getting-hot-in-here-changing-climate-change/
LOCATION:Education City\, Al Luqta St\, Ar-Rayyan\, Doha\, Qatar
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Environmental Studies,Panels,Regional Studies,Student Engagement
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