The research initiative will be led by Sami Hermez, a coordinator of the Qatar hub of the Critical Security Studies network.
Northwestern University will see its Arab Information and Media Studies (AIMS) expanded at its Qatar branch, the institute confirmed, announcing a $350,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York over the next two years.
The new project, led by Marwan M. Kraidy, Dean and CEO of the university, will broaden the field of critical media and information studies in the Arab region and transform it into a more interdisciplinary, multilingual, collaborative, research-oriented, and policy-relevant field.
Kraidy said the move will boost Arab regional research capacity in information and media studies as well as strengthen ties between local universities and research institutions while expanding their global connections.
“Across the numerous academic departments of journalism and media in the Arab world, the field of information and media studies is ripe for development,” Kraidy said.
“Our project has a triple distinction: it is hosted at Northwestern, a global leader in communication, journalism, the social sciences, and the humanities; it is located in the Arab region; and it is explicitly trilingual, reflecting the rich pan-Arab diversity of research languages and tradition.”
He added that such focus will allow experts to connect regional research to international networks and catalyse a qualitative leap in regional knowledge production on Arab media and information.
The AIMS project will link the academic communities studying Arab media in the Arabophone, Anglophone, and Francophone worlds through networking, the translation of academic works, publications, and multilingual events.
Additionally, it will incorporate research on Arab media and information into global south-based transnational networks of knowledge and ideas.
The funding will also help AIMS and the Security in Context network’s joint research project, “Global South Insecurity in an Era of Great Power Competition.”
To examine the effects of the emerging global order on the Arab world and other parts of the Global South, researchers from around the world will collaborate with academics at Northwestern Qatar. Sami Hermez, the coordinator of the Qatar hub of the Critical Security Studies network, will be in charge of the research project.
The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at NU-Q, which produces and promotes evidence-based storytelling centered on the histories, cultures, societies, and media of the Global South, is one of many academic institutions working to support knowledge production in the region.
