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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for International and Regional Studies
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DTSTART:20141025T220000
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20130401T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20130401T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T221320
CREATED:20141019T061455Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T104342Z
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SUMMARY:H.E. Al Dafa on Current Trends in Qatari Diplomacy
DESCRIPTION:On Monday\, April 1\, 2013\, CIRS hosted a talk by H. E. Bader Omar Al Dafa from ‎the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Al Dafa is a career diplomat\, and served as ‎Qatar’s Ambassador to Egypt\, the United States\, France\, and Russia. He was also the ‎Undersecretary General to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for ‎Western Asia (ESCWA). H. E. Al Dafa is currently Ambassador-at-Large and also ‎the Executive Director of the Global Dry Land Alliance. During his visit\, Ambassador ‎Al Dafa shared his experiences as a diplomat and commented on current trends in ‎Qatari diplomacy related to regional developments.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/he-al-dafa-current-trends-qatari-diplomacy/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Dialogue Series,Distingushed Lectures,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20130422T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20130422T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T221320
CREATED:20140915T063622Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T104336Z
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SUMMARY:Daniel Lucey on Global Viral Outbreaks
DESCRIPTION:On April 22\, 2013\, Daniel Lucey\, Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at ‎Georgetown University Medical Center and an expert on global virus outbreaks\, delivered the ‎final CIRS Monthly Dialogue of the 2012-2013 academic year.  Titled “Global Travel and ‎Virus Outbreaks 2003-2013\,” the talk focused on past global outbreaks of respiratory diseases ‎like SARS and H1N1\, and a possible future one that has recently been discovered in the Middle ‎East. ‎ \n \n \nGiving some background into coronavirus epidemics\, Lucey explained that the severe acute ‎respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus first appeared in 2002 in Southeast China. He recalled ‎that “by the first half of 2003\, the SARS coronavirus had spread to twenty-nine nations on five ‎continents\,” largely through air travel. The virus initially spread through hospitals as infected ‎patients transmitted the disease to medical staff who in turn infected family members. The ‎contagion had a 10 percent fatality rate; out of the approximately 8\,000 people who were ‎diagnosed\, 800 people died. Due to the large percentage of fatalities\, the Chinese government ‎received heavy criticism for their handling of the situation\, but\, according to Lucey\, because this ‎was such a novel disease that spread at such a rapid pace\, it could not have been predicted\, nor ‎easily halted. \n \n \nThe World Health Organization (WHO) coined the term “super spreading event” to describe the ‎rapidity with which the virus was transmitted to multiple people in a short amount of time. A ‎decade after the outbreak of SARS\, it is still unclear why one person\, known as a “super ‎spreader\,” can transmit the virus to more than ten people\, while most others who are infected do ‎not transmit it to anyone else. “Of the 238 people with SARS in Singapore\, basically\, it could all ‎be traced back to five people – five so-called ‘super spreaders\,’” Lucey maintained\, citing a ‎publication from the WHO.‎ \n \n \nThe SARS coronavirus was initially found to have infected bats\, but was then transmitted to ‎intermediate hosts\, such as the civet cat\, which is known to be a culinary delicacy in some parts ‎of China\, Vietnam\, and Hong Kong. Through this close contact with animals\, the virus infected ‎people\, and then became contagious between humans. It is estimated that “two-thirds of all new ‎infectious diseases among humans over the last few decades have originated in animals\,” he ‎argued. Once the virus mutated and could be transmitted through the air\, it triggered an ‎international outbreak. ‎ \n \n \nIn the Middle East\, a novel coronavirus appeared in Jordan in 2012 and spread to medical staff ‎at a hospital and some of their family members in much the same pattern as the SARS and H1N1 ‎viruses were transmitted. It was first identified\, however\, in a patient in Saudi Arabia. The virus ‎was then also reported to have infected patients in Qatar and the UAE. Lucey maintained that ‎‎“by genetic sequencing\, it is very similar to the coronaviruses that are known to exist in bats\,” but ‎this connection remains unconfirmed. Lucey posed the question: “is the Middle East coronavirus ‎now\, in 2013\, like the SARS coronavirus in 2002 in terms of only causing sporadic infections and ‎only rarely causing person-to-person transmission?” ‎ \n \n \nIn conclusion\, Lucey argued that because “there is no antiviral drug treatment either then or ‎today\, neither for the SARS coronavirus\, nor the new virus discovered in the Middle East last ‎year\,” it is important to be vigilant about preventing the spread of the disease. There are two main ‎lessons that can be learned from the 2002-2003 SARS coronavirus epidemic that can be adapted ‎to mitigate the 2012-2013 new coronavirus in the Middle East. The first is that “hospital ‎outbreaks are early warnings” that indicate the rise of a contagious virus\, especially if medical ‎workers infect family members outside of the medical facility. The second is the international ‎spread of a virus due to air travel and contact of an infected person with others in different ‎countries. Lucey argued that “as new virus epidemics occur\, they have to start somewhere\, and ‎the sooner we can recognize them at the start\, the more likely we can stop them\, or at least ‎mitigate their serious effects – serious in terms of public health\, and serious in terms of economic ‎impact.”‎ \n \n \nDaniel Lucey\, MD\, MPH\, is a physician who completed his training in infectious diseases and ‎public health at Harvard University hospitals and School of Public Health. He worked at the ‎National Institutes of Health in the US Public Health Service as a Consultant Physician. During ‎the Severe Acute Respiratory (SARS) coronavirus outbreaks in 2003\, he traveled to Asia and ‎worked in a “SARS hospital” in Canada to gain first-hand experience with this new viral disease. ‎Similarly\, from 2004-2012 he traveled to Asia and Egypt to better understand bird flu viruses. ‎  \n \n \nArticle by Suzi Mirgani\, Manager and Editor for CIRS Publications.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/daniel-lucey-global-viral-outbreaks/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Lectures,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20130424T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20130424T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T221320
CREATED:20141019T061104Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T125432Z
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SUMMARY:Rogaia Abusharaf on 'Debating Darfur'
DESCRIPTION:Rogaia Abusharaf\, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University School of ‎Foreign Service in Qatar and CIRS Faculty Fellow 2012-2013\, led a Focused Discussion on ‎‎“Debating Darfur in the World” on April 24\, 2013. The lecture focused on the narratives that ‎have been used by the Sudanese government\, Western media\, and diaspora communities to make ‎sense of the Darfur crisis. Reporting on the extent of violence\, Abusharaf recounted that “during ‎the seven years of strife in Darfur\, more than 2.7 million persons have been forcibly displaced. ‎Human rights organizations estimate the death toll at 400\,000\,” although\, she said\, this figure is ‎significantly higher if we take into account those who died as a result of displacement and other ‎circumstances related to the conflict.‎ \n \n \nThe Darfur crisis has become a linchpin for various interest groups\, including Western public ‎figures and media outlets\, as a cause célèbre often to further ulterior political and ideological ‎goals. In this context\, the narrative used to describe the crisis often echoes that of the WWII ‎Holocaust as it is rooted in notions of ethnicity and ethnic cleansing. “Yet\,” Abusharaf argued\, ‎‎“the deployment of the Arab versus African formulation as the sole explanatory model divorced ‎from other sociopolitical forces shaping society in Darfur is a serious distortion\,” as these are ‎unstable ethnic categories that do not neatly subscribe to Darfurian power and identity structures. ‎Darfur has a long history of intermarriage and reciprocity between the hybrid ethnic groups\, and ‎so this strict categorization of Arab versus African cannot be sustained except through the ‎epistemic violence of reductionist and ideologically-loaded political narratives. She continued by ‎noting that “ethnicity\, when politically mobilized and manipulated\, camouflages other ‎fundamental dimensions of the conflict\, such as banditry\, land-tenure systems\, environmental ‎degradation\, arms proliferation and militarization\, border politics\, and systemic marginality.” In ‎the past\, “alterity did not prompt massacres;” in the current climate\, however\, it is used as ‎justification for violence\, either deliberately or inadvertently by irresponsible actors.‎ \n \n \nAs judgment for the atrocities taking place in Darfur\, President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir was ‎issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. The warrant elicited both pro ‎and anti Al-Bashir sentiments\, locally and within the Sudanese diaspora abroad. The responses of ‎these groups differ markedly from each other as the groups align themselves with different ‎strategic interests. Citing her ethnographic research conducted at Darfur-related conferences\, ‎rallies\, and meetings\, Abusharaf explained how political and cultural identities produce radically ‎different discourses on Darfur. In the United States\, for example\, questions of race and gender ‎are at the forefront of framing the Darfur crisis\, whereas the diasporic discourses annunciated in ‎Doha are more aligned with narratives of reconciliation and social cohesion. ‎ \n \n \nDarfur has thus become the site upon which notions of anti-imperialism and victimization are ‎simultaneously enacted by pro and anti Al-Bashir camps\, respectively. These narratives have been ‎broadcast in the international media as public theatrical performances where Darfur is ‎simultaneously portrayed as resistance to neocolonial international forces as well as to domestic ‎ethnic marginalization.‎ \n \n \nAs a final thought\, Abusharaf commented that there are current concerted efforts taking place in ‎Doha to address the Darfur crisis. This is a loose organization of interested people that do not ‎classify themselves according to strict ethnic divisions\, but along the lines of an active civil ‎society. “In the midst of passions\, pity\, propaganda\, and polarization\, debating Darfur requires a ‎special objectivity and distance from approaches that enlarge rifts and fragmentation that keep ‎the tragedy going\,” she concluded.‎ \n \n \nRogaia M. Abusharaf is the CIRS SFS-Q Faculty Fellow\, and an Associate Professor of ‎Anthropology at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. She is the author ‎of Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement ‎‎(University of Chicago Press 2009); Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives(Ed.). ‎‎(University of Pennsylvania Press 2006) and Wanderings (Cornell University Press 2002). She is ‎the editor of a 2010 special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (Duke University Press). She was a ‎recipient of Postdoctoral and Senior fellowships at Durham University in the U.K. and at Brown ‎and Harvard Universities. Her work was supported by Guggenheim Foundation\, the Royal ‎Anthropological Institute\, the Sir William Luce Memorial Fellowship\, Andrew Mellon and MIT ‎Center for International Studies and Rockefeller Bellagio Study Center\, Qatar University ‎College of Arts and Sciences.‎  \n \n \nArticle by Suzi Mirgani\, Manager and Editor for CIRS Publications.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/rogaia-abusharaf-debating-darfur/
CATEGORIES:CIRS Faculty Lectures,Regional Studies
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