Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar’s project ‘Orality to Image: Traditional Qatari Narratives and Visual Media’, has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) grant by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
Some of the students involved in the project seen with their faculty mentors Patricia Payne Gibbons, Jesse Ulmer, Donald Earley and Michael Hersud
The project proposes to preserve and re-present traditional Qatari culture by adapting cross-generational oral narratives into text and graphic form.
One of the unintentional and undesirable bi-products of the rapid social, cultural and economic change Qatar is experiencing is the erosion and/or loss of traditional Qatari culture and heritage.
This project seeks to preserve and re-present this legacy by adapting it into a form that will accommodate the cultural consumption patterns of the current generation of young adults.
The stories collected will be presented in both Arabic and English and will be accompanied by visual illustrations to create a series of graphic stories.
These graphic stories will be collected in an anthology targeted at all readers who are interested in Qatari culture in general, and young adult readers in particular.
VCUQatar faculty members Patricia Paine Gibbons (assistant professor of English, assistant director of Liberal Arts & Sciences), Jesse Ulmer (assistant professor of English) and Donald Early (assistant professor in Fashion Design) and Dr Sara al-Mohannadi (assistant professor of English Language, Qatar University) are the faculty mentors.
Michael Hersud (assistant professor in Graphic Design, VCUQatar) is the faculty advisor working on this inter-institutionally collaborative project.
The students working on this project are Al Hussein Ahmed Wanas, Ameera Makki, Felicity Ulmer, Joanne Marie Follack Bermejo, Khadija Khozema Safri, Mariam al-Sarraj, Mashaer Sultan Alyaarabi, Nawar Adel al-Mutlaq and Reem al-Hajri.
January was dedicated to content collection and nearly 50 stories were collected. In February, stories were selected for inclusion in the anthology.
This month onwards the team will work on creating a graphic novel while situating the project in a scholarly context.
“We believe that these stories, which are both informative and engaging, could be of valuable use in the classroom and beyond to educate young readers about traditional Qatari culture and lore, to promote literacy, and to instil an appreciation for reading and the visual arts,” Gibbons said.
Recent evidence suggests that illustrated stories are fast becoming a popular form of culture in the GCC region. As recently as 2010, a print cartoon styled in the traditional aesthetic of Manga—a form of illustration that emerged in Japan in the late nineteenth century—created by Qais Sedki, titled Gold Ring, received the Sheikh Zayed Book award for children’s literature in Abu Dhabi.
Rashed al-Oraimi, secretary general of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, remarked Sedki’s book introduces young readers to treasured, foundational aspects of local culture such as Falconry.
“Given the success of this project in the neighbouring UAE, we believe that our project, which shares many of the same goals and strategies, is both timely and relevant for Qatar,” added Gibbons.
