From Pakistan’s historic neighbourhoods to stateless football teams and displaced communities, Northwestern University in Qatar’s (NU-Q) Global Undergraduate Fellows showcased student-led projects rooted in lived experience and global inquiry.NUQ put student voices, curiosity and field-based learning centre stage as it hosted the fourth cohort of the Global Undergraduate Fellows Presentations on January 28, with 16 students showcasing original research and creative projects developed over a year-long fellowship at its events hall. **media[410381]**The programme, run by NUQ’s Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South (IAS), enables selected undergraduate and graduate students to develop evidence-based storytelling and knowledge production through three tracks: academic research papers, multimodal or creative projects, and short documentary films. Fieldwork for this year’s cohort took place across 10 countries, engaging diverse methodologies and perspectives centred on the Global South. Speaking at the event, Marwan M Kraidy, Dean and CEO of NUQ and founder of IAS, described the fellowship as a platform for students to undertake graduate-level research while producing original insights “in words, images and sounds”**media[410382]**“What this fellowship allows our students to do is true graduate-level research,” Kraidy said. “They produce original insights about the world, whether through research papers, websites, multimodal projects or documentary films.”Kraidy emphasised the programme’s competitive nature, noting that fellows are selected through a rigorous proposal process. Once admitted, students receive intellectual, academic, technical, and professional mentoring from faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and staff while balancing their academic coursework. **media[410384]**“The classroom is just one place where education happens,” he said. “Going outside the classroom and pursuing projects driven by intellectual and creative curiosity is where real personal growth takes place.”This year’s fellowship was represented through a custom illustration that reflected the journey of the 2025 cohort. The artwork places the Global South at the centre, presenting it as an interconnected whole rather than isolated regions, with visual elements symbolising specific countries and shared histories, movement and dialogue. According to Clovis Bergère, director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South, the fellowship is designed as a 12-month journey that mirrors the realities of professional research and storytelling.**media[410387]**“Students spend the spring refining their ideas, the summer in the field conducting research or filming, and the fall producing their final work,” Bergère explained. “Throughout the year, they face moments of doubt, challenge and uncertainty — but that struggle is essential to their growth.” He added that the projects are united by personal passion. “These are questions students care deeply about. They’re the ideas that keep them up at night. Our role is to help them become better evidence-based storytellers.”**media[410386]**Among the student presentations was Mohammad Shayan Ahmad, a third-year journalism student, who presented a research paper titled Gentrified Time and Mismatched Clocks: Asynchronous Gentrification of Shahi Muhalla. His work examined urban change in Lahore, Pakistan, and its impact on local communities. “People enjoy the view, the food, the heritage — but they don’t see what’s behind the view,” Ahmad said. “I wanted to create awareness about those who are being neglected in the process.” **media[410385]**Ahmad described the challenge of building trust with residents and navigating climate-related disruptions during fieldwork, adding that the experience reshaped his understanding of journalism and research.Fourth-year journalism student Neel Shelat presented a multimodal project titled The Struggle for Sporting Recognition, focusing on stories from the 2025 CONIFA Asia Cup, which features teams excluded from mainstream international football.**media[410389]**“Football is global, political, social and cultural,” Shelat said. “These communities use the sport as a platform to tell their stories.” Despite logistical challenges, including venue changes and visa arrangements, Shelat said the project reaffirmed his belief in grassroots sport as an authentic expression of identity and resistance.Meanwhile, Isra Fejzullaj, also a fourth-year journalism student, presented a short documentary titled My Soil, My Soul, exploring displacement, memory and identity through the story of The Albanian Cham Plight / community.“It wasn’t just a film,” Fejzullaj said. “It was uncomfortable growth.” She described the difficulty of finding a compelling central character and navigating emotionally charged conversations around displacement and genocide. The project also connected deeply with her own family history, leading her to discover a personal dimension within the story she was telling. **media[410383]**“Through this process, I found my passion for documentary filmmaking,” she said.The event highlighted how experiential learning programmes, such as the Global Undergraduate Fellowship, allow students to apply classroom knowledge to real-world contexts while developing confidence, empathy and professional skills.As Kraidy noted, the programme showcases “the very best students and the very best projects” at NUQ — not only for their academic rigour, but for their ability to humanise complex global issues through storytelling grounded in lived experience.
