Northwestern University in Qatar’s Rawabet conference, “Questioning Anti-Blackness and Racial Privilege in the Global South,” brought together leading scholars, media, and creative artists on a dialogue around legacies of racial oppression and the ways they continue to shape identities and contemporary power structures across the Global South.
Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar, opened the conference with a call to advance regional perspectives on race, moving beyond Western paradigms to reflect the unique experiences of Global South communities. “The Rawabet Conference Series is about connecting issues that are both timely and timeless, and race is one of those,” he remarked. “Race is a tool for people to be together, for people to be against one another. Race has been used to justify war, discrimination, but race is also a form of solidarity and a way to reach for a better future.”
The Rawabet series—meaning “nexus” or "connections" in Arabic—serves as an interdisciplinary platform for intellectual engagement on critical social, political, and cultural issues affecting Global South societies. Each event within the series aims to illuminate how Northwestern Qatar’s research and pedagogy resonate within the local context while addressing complex global themes. This conference examined anti-Blackness and racial privilege, a theme that extends beyond colonial histories to contemporary manifestations of social and economic inequities.
“Race in the Global South is profoundly impacted by the legacies of colonialism, entrenched economic divides, and ongoing contests over racial identity and privilege,” said Zachary Wright, associate dean for faculty affairs. “Through discussions on Black-Arab relations, the intersectionality of race and religion, and South-South dynamics, we aimed to offer perspectives often underrepresented in mainstream academic discourse. This dialogue underscores Northwestern Qatar’s role in advancing nuanced scholarship that is both timely and regionally relevant.”
“The Rawabet Conference Series is about connecting issues that are both timely and timeless, and race is one of those. Race is a tool for people to be together, for people to be against one another. Race has been used to justify war, discrimination, but race is also a form of solidarity and a way to reach for a better future.”
The conference opened with a panel on Black-Arab relations led by Scheherazade Safla, assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern Qatar. Panelists, including creative and communication professional Nisreen Kaj, Rogaia Abusharaf and Sarah Gualtieri from Georgetown University in Qatar, and Dahlia El-Zein from Northwestern Qatar explored the historical and contemporary complexities of racial dynamics, tracing legacies from the Ottoman and French colonial periods and challenging contemporary narratives in the Arab world.
Leila Tayeb, assistant professor at Northwestern Qatar, moderated the second session, “Cultural Knowledge Production and the Contestation of Racism.” Laura Brueck and Ivy Wilson from Northwestern University, Bedour Alagraa from University of Texas Austin, Sara Musaifer from New York University Abu Dhabi, and Muez Ali from Earthna Center for a Sustainable Future examined issues of caste and gender, power imbalances in knowledge production, colonial legacies, and knowledge hierarchies.
On the second day, panels examined the intersections of religion and racial liberation. Hasan Mahmud, assistant professor at Northwestern Qatar, led the session. Panelists Rasul Miller from the University of California Irvine, Akintunde Akinade from Georgetown University in Qatar, Mafaz al-Suwaidan from Harvard University, and spoken word artist Amir Sulaiman discussed the Black radical tradition, Islam and racial liberation, liberation in African theology, and the experiences of Black Ameican Muslims.
The final panel, moderated by Sami Hermez, associate professor and director of the Liberal Arts Program at Northwestern Qatar, explored racial colonialism, the questions of Palestine, and anti-imperialism, featuring Lynda Chinenye Iroulo from Georgetown University Qatar, Greg Burris from Northwestern Qatar, Farah El-Sharif from Stanford University. Together, they looked at the complex global dimensions of the Palestinian solidarity movement, racial hierarchies, and the ongoing fight against imperialism.
Panelists reflected on the significance of such discussions, emphasizing the value of contextualizing racial constructs within the Global South. “[Race] is not something that you can easily define and move around from one place to the other; it has to be highly contextualized. You have to be asking questions about what it is revealing about power, what it is obscuring about power, and how it can help us live together better,” said Mafaz Al-Suwaidan, a PhD candidate at Harvard University. Adding to this, Bedour Alagraa, assistant professor at the University of Texas Austin, noted, “This is the first time that I think I have seen conversations actually aimed at thinking, well, perhaps, these [whiteness and anti-Blackness] systems are the same or much similar than what we are willing to acknowledge. And I think that’s an opening that has some profound implications.”
The conference concluded with a visit to the Ben Jelmood Slavery Museum in Doha, where participants had the opportunity to connect the historical insights discussed with real-world legacies of slavery and race in the region.
The Rawabet conference is part of Northwestern Qatar's commitment to engaging with pressing issues that affect the Global South and advancing critical, cross-regional dialogue. The organizing committee for this conference is led by Wright and includes assistant professors El-Zein and Safla, and Caroline Rodrigues, executive assistant of academic affairs.
