On October 20–21, 2012, The Center for International and Regional Studies launched one of its new research initiatives for the 2012–2013 academic year, “Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran,” through a two day working group held in Doha. Over the course of the two day meeting, international and regional scholars addressed political, economic, and social aspects of…
William O. Beeman, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota and President of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue on “The Khalijis: Iranian-Arabian Biculturalism in the Gulf Region” on October 22, 2012. As an introduction, Beeman gave the audience some background to what…
H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Qatar Telecom (Qtel), delivered a CIRS Distinguished Lecture on “Technology and the Digital Generation” on November 7, 2012. Al Thani began the lecture by giving an overview of Qtel and the changes it has undergone since being restructured in the…
In collaboration with partner organizations, Qatar’s National Food Security Program hosted the “International Conference on Food Security in Dry Lands” in Doha on November 14th and 15th, 2012. National, regional, and international institutions participated in the conference and addressed challenges facing dry lands in their pursuit of food security. The conference focused on the three…
Rabi Mohtar founded the Global Engineering Program at Purdue University where he was a Professor of Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering since 1996. His professional activities addressed the important issues of Water – Energy Food nexus and its inter-linkages; more specifically in developing and maintaining the environmental aspects of sustainable development.
Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh Al-Thani delivered a Monthly Dialogue lecture on the subject of “Women in Qatar: Quotas, Qualifications, and Qatarization” on December 4, 2012. Sheikha Al Thani is the chairperson and founder of Al Faleh Group, an organization that provides educational products and services, and she also serves on the Board of Directors for the Supreme…
On December 8–9, 2012, CIRS convened its first Working Group meeting under the research initiative “Weak States in the Greater Middle East.” Participants employed a multi-disciplinary approach to critically analyze the terminology of weak and failing states, and the political implications associated with states being characterized as such. In addition to exploring cross-cutting themes on the…
On January 5–6, 2013, CIRS held a working group meeting under the research initiative “Politics and the Media in the Post-Arab Spring Middle East.” Given the profound socio-political transitions within Arab states in the wake of the Arab Spring, participants used a multidisciplinary approach to analyze shifts in the role of the media and how it…
Former Foreign Minister of Thailand and career diplomat Kasit Piromya was the featured speaker for a CIRS Monthly Dialoguelecture on January 22, 2013. His Excellency Piromya’s talk, titled “Southeast Asia’s Role in Global Food Security,” focused on the role of Southeast Asian countries as major exporters of food and as the “food cradle” or “food kitchen”…
Richard Schofield, an expert on the study of historical territorial disputes, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture on “Territorializing when Decolonizing: Britain Tries to Square its Circles in the Gulf, 1968-1971” on February 5, 2013. Schofield, who is Convenor of the Master’s programme in Geopolitics, Territory, and Security at King’s College in London, examined the period of…
H.E. Munir Ghannam, Ambassador of Palestine in Qatar, delivered a Focused Discussion lecture on February 13, 2013, on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Ambassador introduced the lecture by noting that “the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is part of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” has a long and turbulent history that has been ongoing for over a century. Giving…
Maha Al-Hendawi, the inaugural CIRS Qatar University Fellow for 2012-2013 and Assistant Professor of Special Education in the College of Education at Qatar University, delivered a CIRSFocused Discussion on “Policy Borrowing in Education: the Example of Inclusive Education in the Gulf” on February 19, 2013. Al-Hendawi began the lecture by noting that her interest in the topic came…