5. Research
Upcoming Research
Qatar’s World Cup Goals: Moving from the Periphery to the Center
The Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar has developed its ongoing web-based research project on Building a Legacy: Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022 into a more focused research initiative with a scholarly outcome of either an edited volume or journal special issue. Continuing under the intellectual guidance of GU-Q Visiting Associate Professor Danyel Reiche, the next iteration of the project builds on the Center’s previous research initiatives and aims to examine the role the FIFA World Cup 2022 plays in enabling the small yet affluent Arabian Peninsula state of Qatar to move from the periphery of global sports and politics to the center.
Past Research
Football in the Middle East Research Initiative
In 2019, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) launched a research initiative on “Football in the Middle East.” The aim of this research effort, which builds on the center’s previous research on Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East, is to provide original academic insight on the political, economic, and social dynamics of football within the region. This CIRS research initiative adopts a multidisciplinary approach, examining a broad range of political, social, and cultural dimensions of the sport. It explores a range of topics, including the relationship between the sport and international relations, and issues related to gender, refugees, tourism, social mobility, media broadcasting rights, the 2022 World Cup, and sports infrastructure.
CIRS convened two working groups that brought together regional and international scholars and experts to discuss some of the understudied areas related to football in the region and to identify original research questions in their respective areas of focus. This CIRS project is an attempt to produce new literature on an understudied area in the Middle East by engaging scholars and experts from multiple disciplines, including political science, anthropology, business, and journalism, among others. The invited scholars contributed empirically grounded original chapters in an edited volume on Football in the Middle East which is edited by Professor Abdulla Al-Arian, a faculty member at GUQ and will be published in 2021.
Sport, Society and the State in the Middle East Research Initiative
This research initiative addresses an increasingly important but largely understudied topic in Middle Eastern studies. Utilizing an interdisciplinary range of social science approaches, this project deepens our theoretical as well as empirical and analytical knowledge of the role of sports in the Middle East. Examining sports within the context of the contemporary Middle East provides an alternate field for our understanding of state-society relations, political economy, and international relations.
CIRS convened two working group meetings that brought together regional and international scholars and experts to discuss some of the understudied areas to identify original research questions in their respective areas of focus. The participants led discussions on a number of related subtopics, including the historical evolution of sports in the Middle East; nationalism, identity, and sports; ethnonational conflict and sports; social inclusion, gender, and sports; fans, brands, sponsorships, and the commercial development of sports; the politics of football in the Levant; physical education; the evolution of sports media; Khaleeji soft power, branding, and sports investments; and GCC mega sporting events and foreign relations.
Publications
Football in the Middle East: State, Society, and the Beautiful Game
Far and away the most popular sport in the world, football has a special place in Middle Eastern societies, and for Middle Eastern states. With Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, this region has been cast into the global footballing spotlight, raising issues of geopolitical competition, consumer culture, and social justice. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines the complex questions raised by the phenomenon of football as a significant cultural force in the Middle East, as well as its linkages to broader political and socioeconomic processes. The establishment of football as a national sport offers significant insight into the region’s historical experiences with colonialism and struggles for independence, as well as the sport’s vital role in local and regional politics today-whether at the forefront of popular mobilizations, or as an instrument of authoritarian control. Football has also served as an arena of contestation in the formation of national identity, the struggle for gender equality, and the development of the media landscape. The twelve contributions to this volume draw on extensive engagement with the existing body of literature, and introduce original research questions that promise to open new directions for the study of football in the Middle East.
Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East
Sport in the Middle East has become a major issue in global affairs. The contributors to this volume discuss the intersection of political and cultural processes related to sport in the region. The chapters trace the historical institutionalization of sport and the role it has played in negotiating “Western” culture. Sport is found to be a contested terrain where battles are being fought over the inclusion of women, over competing definitions of national identity, over preserving social memory, and over press freedom. Also discussed are the implications of mega-sporting events for host countries, and how both elite sport policies and sports industries in the region are being shaped.