The Northwestern University in Qatar building
Doha: The Carnegie Corporation of New York has awarded Northwestern University in Qatar a $350,000 grant to expand the field of Arab Information and Media Studies (AIMS) over the next two years. The grant will also support a collaboration between AIMS and the Security in Context (SIC) network, a global initiative promoting critical research and policy analysis on peace and conflict.
Each year, the Carnegie Corporation of New York awards grants to organisations around the world to develop projects that promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Projects awarded for the Carnegie Corporation of New York grants are selected based on their capacity to create measurable impact and drive meaningful and transformative change.
Directed by Marwan M Kraidy, Dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar, the Arab Information and Media Studies (AIMS) project will expand 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 through the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar.
The AIMS project will connect Arabophone, Anglophone, and Francophone Arab media scholarly communities through networking, translation of scholarly works, publications, and multilingual events. The project will also integrate the study of media and information in the Arab world into transnational networks of ideas and knowledge based in the Global South.
The grant will also support a collaborative research initiative between AIMS and the Security in Context network titled Global South Insecurity in an era of Great Power Competition. Researchers from around the world will join scholars at Northwestern Qatar to examine the contours of the emerging world order on the Arab world and other regions of the Global South. This research initiative will be led by Sami Hermez, who serves as coordinator of the Qatar hub of the Critical Security Studies network.
In highlighting the impact of AIMS, Kraidy said it will increase research capacity in information and media studies in the Arab region, deepening bonds between regional universities and research institutes while broadening 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,” noted Kraidy.
“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. These qualities will help us catalyse a qualitative leap in regional knowledge production on Arab media and information, and connect regional research to global networks.”
The projects will draw on the expertise of several Northwestern Qatar researchers and scholars, including Marina Krikorian, research manager for programmes and projects at #IAS_NUQ, who will be responsible for the management of AIMS, and Clovis Bergère, assistant director for research at #IAS_NUQ and member of the Critical Security Studies Qatar hub.
