Heather Jaber, assistant professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar, has been selected for the inaugural Global Humanities Fellowship by Northwestern’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
Offered jointly by both institutes, this non-residential program enables Northwestern faculty to pursue independent projects of significance in the humanities while immersed in an interdisciplinary community of scholars. Fellows are selected by an external jury, based on their scholarly merit, international and global scope, research significance, originality, and the quality and clarity of the project proposal.
Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar, underscored the significance of Jaber’s fellowship, saying, “Heather’s selection is a testament to the significant scholarly work produced at Northwestern Qatar.” He added, “Our commitment to rigorous and innovative scholarship is reflected in her research, which bridges cultural and digital studies in groundbreaking ways. This fellowship underscores the vital role that Northwestern Qatar plays in advancing global humanities research, and through this opportunity will further reinforce the connections and scholarly exchange between faculty in Qatar and our Evanston counterparts, nurturing a richer, more collaborative academic environment across our campuses.”
“This fellowship underscores the vital role that Northwestern Qatar plays in advancing global humanities research, and through this opportunity will further reinforce the connections and scholarly exchange between faculty in Qatar and our Evanston counterparts, nurturing a richer, more collaborative academic environment across our campuses.”
As a 2024—25 fellow, Jaber will work on her book project, Feeling Like the Global South: Recoding Digital Bahdala in the MENA, which examines bahdala—the Arabic word for humbling ridicule—as an emotional framework for the underlying economy of the Internet and the way it structures global belonging. She will also join public discussions hosted by the Buffett Institute to share latest research with the wider Northwestern community.
“This joint fellowship is an exciting initiative that encourages interdisciplinary scholarship, and I look forward to committing my time to this critical scholarship and have a platform to advance it,” said Jaber. “I am especially grateful to advance my research on affect and emotion online and look at how, in the aftermath of great structural changes like revolution and economic collapse, national publics across the MENA channel spectacles of shame online as a way to deal with threatened global belonging.”
Deborah Cohen, executive director of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, and Laura Brueck, director of the Alice Kaplan Institute for Humanities, said, "We're delighted to have the opportunity to join the Buffett and Kaplan Humanities Institutes to support Professor Jaber's important work on the circulation of emotions on the internet. She will be the first Kaplan Faculty Fellow from NU-Q. We look forward to welcoming her to Evanston.”
