In October 2018, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) held a CURA Seminar under its CURA (CIRS Undergraduate Research Advancement) initiative. Each semester, CURA Fellows come together for an active…
On October 28–29, 2018, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) held the second working group under its research initiative on “Informal Politics in the Middle East.” Over the course…
On November 11, 2018, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) launched its recent book on Environmental Politics of the Middle East (Oxford University Press/Hurst, 2018), edited by Harry…
On January 16, 2019, CIRS invited Middle East analyst Massaab Al-Aloosy to discuss his research on “Fundamentalist Metamorphosis: Hezbollah’s Ideological Evolution from Idealism to Pragmatism.” During the talk, he mapped out the…
On January 20-21, 2019, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) held the first working group under its research initiative on “Russia and the Middle East.” Over the course of…
CIRS invited Richard L. Russell, professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, to deliver a talk titled “Taking Measure of American Foreign Policy” on January 27, 2019, in…
Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities and Professor of Politics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, was invited by CIRS to discuss the current…
CIRS hosted its second CURA workshop for GU-Q students on the topic “Introduction to Research Methods” The workshop, held on February 7, 2019, presented a conceptual definition of research methods, introduced methodological approaches, addressed practical issues concerning data availability, and helped students to identify appropriate strategies for tackling their own research projects. Justin Gengler, Assistant Research Professor…
Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a Qatar-based novelist and community course instructor at VCUarts Qatar who writes on topics related to gender, race, and pedagogy. On February 13, 2019, she presented a CIRS Focused Discussion, “Western Higher Education in Global Contexts,” in which she explored the topic of international branch campuses (IBCs)—such as Georgetown University in Qatar…
On February 24-25, 2019, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) brought together a number of scholars to commence a new research effort on the “Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East.” Over the course of two days, the participating scholars discussed a wide array of topics, including: neo-liberal policies post the 2011 uprisings; business…
Phoebe Musandu, professor of History at GU-Q and a scholar of African history, was invited to discuss her research on Kenyan newspapers in the colonial and post-colonial periods during a CIRS Focused Discussion, titled “Serve . . . as Best as We Can:” A Local East African Newspaper v. the State and Market Forces,” on…
As part of the partnership between CIRS, and Qatar-based institutions to investigate the current state of healthcare provision to single male labors (SML), a second working group for this project was held on March 13, 2019. Scholars, practitioners, stakeholders, and government entities participated in the working group with the aim to examine SML’s access to…