Faculty and researchers from Northwestern University in Qatar have been awarded four grants from the Qatar National Research Fund and two collaborative research grants by the Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Education City Innovation in Teaching Grant program.
“Northwestern Qatar continues to play its role as an impactful institution located at the convergence of continents and cultures,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “By utilizing their expertise in the field of journalism, critical security studies, and digital media, these researchers are boosting Qatar’s strategy to be a thriving knowledge society while also advancing the future of research and collaborative engagements in academia to new heights.”
Professors Khaled Al Hroub, Hasan Mahmud, and Spencer Striker are among the faculty awarded the grants by QNRF’s Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP). As part of their projects, they will work with students from Northwestern Qatar to examine digital citizenship in the Arab world, higher education in Qatar, the Palestinian diaspora in Qatar, and the history of global pandemics.
The study led by Al Hroub, Documenting the history of the first generation of Palestinians in Qatar (early 1950s - mid 1970s), will look at the history of the Palestinian diaspora in Qatar and aspects of their integration into Qatari society. Through a series of interviews and qualitative field research, students will examine the receptive mechanisms of the local Qatari society and the other social and cultural factors contributing to Palestinian settlement in the country.
Mahmud will lead a research project exploring the factors shaping the learning and living experiences of international students from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East attending U.S. universities in Qatar. The project, Global Hope, National Promise, Local Life: Encountering Western Liberalism in Education City in Qatar, will help understand the impacts of the policies and practices of upholding diversity and inclusion by examining the structures and policies adopted in universities across Education City.
Another project awarded a grant is Surviving Pandemics in History, a virtual reality experience by Professor Spencer Striker. The project, which is being developed to examine the history of pandemics around the world, will have students working alongside researchers and professional designers throughout the development process to study the impact of VR and interactive media in enhancing the classroom learning experience of students studying historical topics.
Similarly, Professor Eddy Borges-Rey is part of an interdisciplinary research team examining the future of digital citizenship in Qatar through a major grant from QNRF’s National Priorities Research Programme – Cluster (NPRP-C). The four-year project is set to build an observatory for trends and common topics on social media, web-based tools, and educational materials, as well as research on digital literacy and wellbeing, gender equality, social inclusion, behavior-based approaches to security and safety, propaganda detection and mitigation, and other topics.
“Northwestern Qatar continues to play its role as an impactful institution located at the convergence of continents and cultures,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “By utilizing their expertise in the field of journalism, critical security studies, and digital media, these researchers are boosting Qatar’s strategy to be a thriving knowledge society while also advancing the future of research and collaborative engagements in academia to new heights.”
Professors Khaled Al Hroub, Hasan Mahmud, and Spencer Striker are among the faculty awarded the grants by QNRF’s Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP). As part of their projects, they will work with students from Northwestern Qatar to examine digital citizenship in the Arab world, higher education in Qatar, the Palestinian diaspora in Qatar, and the history of global pandemics.
The study led by Al Hroub, Documenting the history of the first generation of Palestinians in Qatar (early 1950s - mid 1970s), will look at the history of the Palestinian diaspora in Qatar and aspects of their integration into Qatari society. Through a series of interviews and qualitative field research, students will examine the receptive mechanisms of the local Qatari society and the other social and cultural factors contributing to Palestinian settlement in the country.
Mahmud will lead a research project exploring the factors shaping the learning and living experiences of international students from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East attending U.S. universities in Qatar. The project, Global Hope, National Promise, Local Life: Encountering Western Liberalism in Education City in Qatar, will help understand the impacts of the policies and practices of upholding diversity and inclusion by examining the structures and policies adopted in universities across Education City.
Another project awarded a grant is Surviving Pandemics in History, a virtual reality experience by Professor Spencer Striker. The project, which is being developed to examine the history of pandemics around the world, will have students working alongside researchers and professional designers throughout the development process to study the impact of VR and interactive media in enhancing the classroom learning experience of students studying historical topics.
Similarly, Professor Eddy Borges-Rey is part of an interdisciplinary research team examining the future of digital citizenship in Qatar through a major grant from QNRF’s National Priorities Research Programme – Cluster (NPRP-C). The four-year project is set to build an observatory for trends and common topics on social media, web-based tools, and educational materials, as well as research on digital literacy and wellbeing, gender equality, social inclusion, behavior-based approaches to security and safety, propaganda detection and mitigation, and other topics.
“Northwestern Qatar continues to play its role as an impactful institution located at the convergence of continents and cultures. By utilizing their expertise in the field of journalism, critical security studies, and digital media, these researchers are boosting Qatar’s strategy to be a thriving knowledge society while also advancing the future of research and collaborative engagements in academia to new heights”
- Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar
In addition to the grants by QNRF, faculty and researchers from Northwestern Qatar were also awarded grants through QF’s Education City Innovation in Teaching Grant program for projects examining religious pluralism and critical security studies. These grants are awarded to cross-institution research projects by faculty in Education City and Qatar to implement creative and innovative pedagogical approaches in the classroom.
The project on religious pluralism titled Developing a Case Study Model for Teaching religious pluralism in the Arab and Islamic World is led by Northwestern Qatar Professor Ibrahim Abusharif and a research team that includes Josef Waleed Meri, historian in Middle East interfaith relations at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and Georgetown University in Qatar Professor of Theology Akintunde Akinade. Working together, the research team will create an open-access case study for teaching about religious diversity in the Arab and Islamic world in Education City modeled after the Harvard case study model for teaching religious pluralism in the United States.
For the project on critical security studies, Introducing Critical Security Studies: A Project on Time and Violence, Northwestern Qatar Professor Sami Hermez and Clovis Bergère, assistant director for research at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South, will work alongside researchers from a Doha-based working group on critical security studies, which includes faculty and researchers from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Qatar University. Together, the interdisciplinary research team will explore the relationship between time and violence and ways to incorporate derived insights into the learning process through a series of public workshops and seminars.
In highlighting the impact of the projects, Zachary Wright, professor in residence and associate dean for faculty affairs at Northwestern Qatar, said, “the topics involved speak to some of the more interesting and urgent discussions within contemporary regional contexts.” He added, “these funded projects testify to Northwestern Qatar’s foregrounding of agile research methodologies involving new media, faculty-student learning, as well as interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaboration.”
Northwestern Qatar faculty, researchers, and students engage in a variety of research and creative scholarship across academic and research disciplines, including advertising and strategic communication, African studies, media, and digital literacy, science and technology studies, and several other topics related to the Global South and the region.
The project on religious pluralism titled Developing a Case Study Model for Teaching religious pluralism in the Arab and Islamic World is led by Northwestern Qatar Professor Ibrahim Abusharif and a research team that includes Josef Waleed Meri, historian in Middle East interfaith relations at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and Georgetown University in Qatar Professor of Theology Akintunde Akinade. Working together, the research team will create an open-access case study for teaching about religious diversity in the Arab and Islamic world in Education City modeled after the Harvard case study model for teaching religious pluralism in the United States.
For the project on critical security studies, Introducing Critical Security Studies: A Project on Time and Violence, Northwestern Qatar Professor Sami Hermez and Clovis Bergère, assistant director for research at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South, will work alongside researchers from a Doha-based working group on critical security studies, which includes faculty and researchers from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Qatar University. Together, the interdisciplinary research team will explore the relationship between time and violence and ways to incorporate derived insights into the learning process through a series of public workshops and seminars.
In highlighting the impact of the projects, Zachary Wright, professor in residence and associate dean for faculty affairs at Northwestern Qatar, said, “the topics involved speak to some of the more interesting and urgent discussions within contemporary regional contexts.” He added, “these funded projects testify to Northwestern Qatar’s foregrounding of agile research methodologies involving new media, faculty-student learning, as well as interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaboration.”
Northwestern Qatar faculty, researchers, and students engage in a variety of research and creative scholarship across academic and research disciplines, including advertising and strategic communication, African studies, media, and digital literacy, science and technology studies, and several other topics related to the Global South and the region.
