Ian Almond, Professor of World Literature at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, headed a CIRS Faculty Research Workshop on "Dissecting the Native Informant: A Case Study of Nirad C. Chaudhuri" on November 16, 2014. The workshop was held to discuss his latest work examining the related ideas of melancholy, political conservatism, and native informancy.…
Buthaina Al Ansari, founder and Chairperson of Qatariat T&D Holding Company and Senior Human Resources Director at Ooredoo, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue on the topic of “Sheroes—How Female Leaders are Changing Qatar” on November 17, 2014. Al Ansari introduced the talk, which focused on the status of female leadership in Qatar, by explaining that…
On November 20-21, 2014, in partnership with the youth-oriented social initiative organization, Silatech, CIRS launched the “Youth in the Middle East” research initiative with a two day working group meeting. The meeting was hosted by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at the Georgetown University campus in Washington, DC, where participants gathered from various countries…
On December 1, 2014, Neha Vora, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Lafayette College, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue on the topic “Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora.” Much of the research she conducted was during the “boom” years of Dubai’s economic growth, when “Brand Dubai” was establishing the city as a commercial and tourism hub to attract…
On January 10-11, 2015, CIRS held the first Working Group under its research initiative on “Re-Emerging West Asia.” Included in the meeting were academics representing the South Caucasus states of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, as well as scholars from Iran and Turkey. Over the course of two days, the participants discussed a number of relevant…
On Tuesday, January 13, 2015, CIRS hosted a book launch and reading by Abdullah Al-Arian, Assistant Professor of History at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Answering the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Sadat’s Egypt, published by Oxford University Press in 2014, "examines the means by which the Muslim Brotherhood was reconstituted during Anwar al-Sadat's presidency.…
On January 15, 2015, Suzi Mirgani, Manager and Editor for CIRS Publications, delivered a Focused Discussion and film screening of her short film "Hind's Dream." The screening was followed by a discussion with the writer and director and members of the film's cast and crew, including Georgetown University in Qatar students Athanasios Sardellis, Razan Al Humaidi, and Haya Al Romaihi. “Hind’s Dream” premiered…
The chapters in this volume, published by Oxford University Press and C. Hurst & Co., grew out of a two-year research initiative held under the auspices of CIRS, and includes contributions from 25 leading experts in food security issues from top universities around the world.
On February 8, 2015, CIRS held its second working group on the Healthcare Policy and Politics in the Gulf research initiative in Doha. Participants gathered for the second time to discuss their research findings and obtain feedback from their fellow working group members. The topics discussed during the day covered a wide range of healthcare issues…
Finally, we show the various ways in which descriptive discourses—such as scientific and social-scientific discourses—and normative discourses mutually contribute to each other in fruitful ways. The result is a picture of normativity that is robust and truth-apt, sewn into a new take on the naturalist tradition.
Amira El-Zein, Associate Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar and the 2014-2015 CIRS SFS-Q Faculty Fellow, delivered a CIRS Focused Discussion on “Victimization or Empowerment? The Case of Saudi Literature” on March 10, 2015. The lecture focused on several works authored by Saudi female novelists published outside of Saudi Arabia…
On March 14-15, 2015, CIRS held its first working group on “The Gulf Family” where scholars convened to discuss both historical and current issues that affect the Gulf family structure. In contrast to the literature on the family in the greater Middle East, significant gaps in scholarship still exist in relation to the dynamics of…