From October 30 to November 1, 2025, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar (GUQ) hosted a workshop under its research initiative, Sudan in the Picture: Research on Sudanese Cinema. The gathering brought together a diverse group of scholars, academics, artists, filmmakers, and practitioners from across the globe to…
Join us for the launch of the Migrant Stories from Qatar project website! This project brings together oral histories from migrant workers across Qatar, offering rare insight into their lived experiences and contributions to the country’s social and economic fabric. The six principal investigators will reflect on the research process, its findings, and the broader…
In the 1990's, the world began to see a massive growth in transnational traffic in images, ideologies and commodities, a process which popularized the term globalization. Today, almost four decades later, the world order is multipolar, highly unstable and full of obstacles to free cultural flows. How can we interpret these changes? Hosted by CIRS,…
Speaker: Marlene Schäfers, Associate Professor, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University On November 13, CIRS hosted a lunch talk in collaboration with the Critical Security Studies Hub at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University, titled “Labouring to Keep the Dead Alive: Commemoration and Social Reproduction in the Kurdish Movement.”…
On November 16 and 17, 2025, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar (GUQ) held a brainstorming session under its research initiative Migration Studies from the Global South: Rethinking Theory and Method. This inaugural meeting brought together scholars and practitioners of migration from the Global South to explore key…
In Conversation with Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer and Professor Akintunde Akinade What does Africana Studies look like depending on where it is practiced? This lunch talk brings scholars into conversation on how institutional location, disciplinary training, and regional context shape the questions, methods, and stakes of Africana Studies. The discussion considers the relationship between scholarship…
Join us for the screening of Cotton Queen, register below! Cotton Queen is a 2025 internationally co-produced drama written and directed by Suzi Mirgani in her feature directorial debut. Set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, the film follows Nafisa, a young woman raised on her grandmother’s stories of resistance against British colonial rule. When…
This public panel brings together scholars to examine how migration categories are produced, governed, and contested within Asia and across transnational flows from the Global South to the Global North. Moving beyond fixed labels such as migrant, refugee, skilled worker, or trafficking victim, the discussion explores how state policies, visa regimes, and labor markets shape…
In Conversation with Professor Maurice Jackson The book, set to be published next year, traces the struggles of African Americans for equality and human rights from 1780 to 2020. Through the history of Washington DC, it shows how Black lived experiences, political mobilization, and resistance mirror broader national struggles. By centering the city as both…