Five scholars are set to join the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ) as part of the 2025-26 global scholars cohort. Angela Haddad joins as a Global Postdoctoral Scholar, while Asri Saraswati, Mostafa Minawi, Sara Mourad, and Téwodros Workneh will be in residence as Global Fellows.
The Global Fellowship offers established and emerging scholars a short-term opportunity to develop a project-in-progress, while the Global Postdoctoral Scholars program holds a longer appointment that includes more profound teaching and mentoring components. Both the Global Fellows and Postdoctoral Scholar will participate in public colloquia and engage closely with the Northwestern Qatar community, including undergraduate fellows, offering valuable opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, and feedback.
The Global Fellowship offers established and emerging scholars a short-term opportunity to develop a project-in-progress, while the Global Postdoctoral Scholars program holds a longer appointment that includes more profound teaching and mentoring components. Both the Global Fellows and Postdoctoral Scholar will participate in public colloquia and engage closely with the Northwestern Qatar community, including undergraduate fellows, offering valuable opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, and feedback.
“I am thrilled to welcome this exceptional group of scholars as we continue to expand our commitment to interdisciplinary, globally engaged scholarship. Their work reflects the heart of our mission — to explore the histories, cultures, and media of the Global South. We value the dynamic, collaborative environment we have created here, where students and scholars at all stages of their careers engage with one another, exchange ideas, and amplify voices that shape critical conversations”
- Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar
Haddad is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at New York University and a doctoral fellow at the Orient-Institut Beirut. Her research traces Arab Caribbean literary modernities through the writings of Syro-Lebanese migrants to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti at the turn of the twentieth century. While in residence, she will develop her dissertation into a monograph and launch a restoration and digitization project for rare journals and magazines previously inaccessible due to their condition. Her next project explores Arab travel texts that document early South-South encounters and the aesthetic foundations of later transregional solidarities.
Saraswati, an assistant professor at the University of Indonesia, brings expertise in postcoloniality, gender, and cultural politics to her role as a Global Fellow. Her research explores the entanglements of mobility, knowledge production, and imperial power. At #IAS_NUQ, she will advance her book manuscript, Navigating Cold War Cultural Politics: Literary Aesthetics of Indonesian Sojourn Writers, which examines the networks and ideologies that shaped Indonesian writers trained during the Cold War.
Minawi, professor of History at Cornell University, is a historian of empire whose work investigates Ottoman imperialism and inter-imperial competition across Africa, Asia, and Europe through archival research grounded in the Global South. He is the author of The Ottoman Scramble for Africa and the award-winning Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire. As a Global Fellow at #IAS_NUQ, he will work on the second chapter of his forthcoming book, The Global History of a Roof Top in Jerusalem at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, which explores Ottoman, Italian, and Ethiopian relations between 1885 and 1914.
Mourad, assistant professor of Media Studies at the American University of Beirut, is a writer and scholar focusing on gender, Arab public cultures, and the cultural politics of sexuality. During her time at Northwestern Qatar, she will continue developing her first book, The Skull in the Attic, which examines familial archives, rupture, and belonging in postwar Lebanon. The book draws on literary, visual, and popular culture to articulate a poetics of home that resists nostalgic attachments to the nuclear family and the nation.
Workneh, an associate professor of Global Communication at Kent State University, examines global media industries and policies through the lens of critical political economy and postcolonial theory, with a focus on state-media relations in Ethiopia and its diaspora. As a Global Fellow, he will advance his project, Digital Diasporas, Homeland Politics: Remote Media Engagement Among East African Expatriates in the Gulf Region, exploring how Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in Qatar and the UAE use digital platforms to shape and circulate political narratives.
"Through our fellowships, we attract top scholars at different stages of their careers, many based in the Global South, whose work engages with our research themes across disciplines and geographies," said Clovis Bergère, director of #IAS_NUQ. "This year's cohort — with projects on Arab Caribbean literary modernities, Cold War-era Indonesian writers, Ottoman imperialism in Africa, belonging in postwar Lebanon, and Ethiopian digital diasporas — reflects that breadth. We look forward to welcoming them!
#IAS_NUQ serves as a dynamic platform for interdisciplinary collaboration, where Postdoctoral Scholars integrate regional expertise into transnational, historically informed research. Global Fellows, while pursuing their independent projects, actively engage with the Institute’s intellectual community, participating in research groups, presenting their work, and contributing to multilingual publications. Together, their work deepens the Institute’s mission to explore the diverse and interconnected challenges shaping the Global South, amplifying knowledge and narratives that resonate both locally and globally.
Saraswati, an assistant professor at the University of Indonesia, brings expertise in postcoloniality, gender, and cultural politics to her role as a Global Fellow. Her research explores the entanglements of mobility, knowledge production, and imperial power. At #IAS_NUQ, she will advance her book manuscript, Navigating Cold War Cultural Politics: Literary Aesthetics of Indonesian Sojourn Writers, which examines the networks and ideologies that shaped Indonesian writers trained during the Cold War.
Minawi, professor of History at Cornell University, is a historian of empire whose work investigates Ottoman imperialism and inter-imperial competition across Africa, Asia, and Europe through archival research grounded in the Global South. He is the author of The Ottoman Scramble for Africa and the award-winning Losing Istanbul: Arab-Ottoman Imperialists and the End of Empire. As a Global Fellow at #IAS_NUQ, he will work on the second chapter of his forthcoming book, The Global History of a Roof Top in Jerusalem at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, which explores Ottoman, Italian, and Ethiopian relations between 1885 and 1914.
Mourad, assistant professor of Media Studies at the American University of Beirut, is a writer and scholar focusing on gender, Arab public cultures, and the cultural politics of sexuality. During her time at Northwestern Qatar, she will continue developing her first book, The Skull in the Attic, which examines familial archives, rupture, and belonging in postwar Lebanon. The book draws on literary, visual, and popular culture to articulate a poetics of home that resists nostalgic attachments to the nuclear family and the nation.
Workneh, an associate professor of Global Communication at Kent State University, examines global media industries and policies through the lens of critical political economy and postcolonial theory, with a focus on state-media relations in Ethiopia and its diaspora. As a Global Fellow, he will advance his project, Digital Diasporas, Homeland Politics: Remote Media Engagement Among East African Expatriates in the Gulf Region, exploring how Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in Qatar and the UAE use digital platforms to shape and circulate political narratives.
"Through our fellowships, we attract top scholars at different stages of their careers, many based in the Global South, whose work engages with our research themes across disciplines and geographies," said Clovis Bergère, director of #IAS_NUQ. "This year's cohort — with projects on Arab Caribbean literary modernities, Cold War-era Indonesian writers, Ottoman imperialism in Africa, belonging in postwar Lebanon, and Ethiopian digital diasporas — reflects that breadth. We look forward to welcoming them!
#IAS_NUQ serves as a dynamic platform for interdisciplinary collaboration, where Postdoctoral Scholars integrate regional expertise into transnational, historically informed research. Global Fellows, while pursuing their independent projects, actively engage with the Institute’s intellectual community, participating in research groups, presenting their work, and contributing to multilingual publications. Together, their work deepens the Institute’s mission to explore the diverse and interconnected challenges shaping the Global South, amplifying knowledge and narratives that resonate both locally and globally.
