NEW VISTAS: The Georgetown University-Qatar campus in Education City. INSET: Dr Gerd Nonneman
It’s been called one of the world’s first “multiversities” because of the confluence of six major undergraduate schools on its sprawling 2,500-acre grounds. And for the students of Qatar Foundation’s Education City, there is no end to the choice of world-class educational opportunities that will open the door to any number of careers.
And while graduate-level courses and other academic and training opportunities have started making their way into campus offerings, for many Doha universities, an undergraduate education remains the primary focus.
But for one institution, Georgetown University in Qatar, a significant shift has taken place. As the campus prepares to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, one of the areas that has seen the most changes over the years is in research, both for students and faculty.
The institution already has a long and prestigious reputation for its research contributions from the main branch in Washington, DC. But the Doha branch is making waves as well, increasingly investing in developing a research infrastructure, and in the process becoming an internationally recognised research hub in a broad range of local and global topics.
Most recently, GU-Q’s role in two prominent international research conferences places this Education City institution at the forefront of Gulf studies: a workshop on Africa and the Gulf at the world’s premier annual research forum on the Gulf, in Cambridge; and a joint conference with Exeter University on the boom in cultural heritage activities in the Gulf.
Both conferences pushed the boundaries of knowledge on important questions, and saw the upstart Doha branch campus taking on roles that have traditionally been played by seasoned institutions. The first conference, the 5th Annual Gulf Research Meeting at Cambridge University held on August 25-27, saw seven GU-Q researchers participate across three two-day workshops. Two of the workshops — one on Africa-Gulf relations and one on GCC-Iranian relations — were organised by GU-Q faculty.
Georgetown is the only university from Qatar to have organised such workshops at this gathering of the world’s Gulf-centred research community for successive years, but the 2014 edition saw the largest cohort of GU-Q scholars so far. This knits the Doha-based research community together with the global community of scholars on the region, in an expanding exchange of ideas. Notably, the number of Qatar University scholars at the event has also crept up the past two years – on occasion indeed in collaboration with GU-Q.
“Georgetown has been making a significant contribution to building a genuine research culture in Qatar,” said GU-Q dean and conference participant Dr Gerd Nonneman.
“By organising and participating in top-flight international conferences, we also ensure that we have an international presence. This really puts Qatar on the radar of the global research community, which is an achievement we are very proud of,” added Dr Nonneman – himself a noted scholar of the Gulf and co-editor of the main scientific journal on the region, the Journal of Arabian Studies.
The 2014 Exeter-Georgetown Gulf Conference titled ‘The Heritage Boom in the Gulf: Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives’, was jointly organised by GU-Q and the University of Exeter’s Center for Gulf Studies, in September.
“This conference is one of a famous series of annual conferences on Gulf studies that has been held at Exeter over the past 30 years. This year is the first time we’ve co-organised it with them, and we intend to make this a new tradition, perhaps also bringing the event to Doha,” added the dean.
Over two days, scholars from all over the world presented their research on issues relating to cultural heritage, or “turath”, a topic that has reached unprecedented visibility in the Gulf in recent years with the development of national museums and national archives, heritage villages, and many other cultural projects that invoke the political, social and economic role of memory and shared cultural heritage.
“It’s important for people working on cultural heritage projects in the Gulf to reflect on why they’re doing it, how they’re doing it, and who’s involved in identifying, preserving and reconstructing it,” said conference co-convener Dr Nonneman.
“In particular, people need to start thinking about what heritage means in the first place. These are important questions, and much of the research presented at the conference seeks to provide insights that can help future researchers and policy makers understand these complex heritage issues.”
