Thought Provokers
On the Genealogy of Morality
In looking for ideas about how to present the history and connectivity of ideas, I returned to Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality, published in 1887. Sharing a few notes with that interest in reading (and only a periphery interest in the arguments of the book). In the Introduction of the version I read (by […]
Tags: #Genealogy #Genealogy as method #History #Nietzsche #On the Genealogy of Morality
Qatar: A Modern History
Other than a short publication from 1979, there are few academic books on the history of Qatar. After spending a year in Qatar, at Qatar University, Allen Fromherz wrote ‘Qatar: A Modern History’. The book was originally published in 2012, (Kamrava’s book is 2013) however, the updated version (published in 2017) provides updates throughout the […]
Home and Exile (Achebe)
Notes from Chinua Achebe, who needs no introduction, from Home and Exile (2000): “One morning all the animals were going to a meeting to which the town crier had summoned them the night before. Surprisingly the chicken was headed not to the public square like the rest, but away from it. When his neighbours and […]
Tags: #Absolute power #Achebe #Chinua Achebe #Home and Exile #Storyteller
The Doha Experiment
There is a reason why some books are published by academic publishers, and others not. Academic books are peer reviewed and are held to a standard of quality (usually). Retired professor Gary Wasserman’s book, “Doha Experiment: Arab Kingdom, Catholic College, Jewish Teacher” (2017), was not published by an academic press, he opted for Skyhorse (known for […]
Tags: #Education City #Gary Wasserman #Qatar #The Doha Experiment
Changing Qatar
Geoff Harkness attempts to offer a sort of primer on Qatar in “Changing Qatar: Culture, Citizenship, and Rapid Modernization” (2020), published by NYU Press. The book reads like a mixture between Wikipedia pages and a Lonely Planet travel guide. One review of the book, by Daniel Martin Varisco, felt it more reflective of journalism than academic […]
Tags: #Changing Qatar #Eurocentrism #Geoff Harkness #NYU Press #Qatar
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), a pseudonym meaning ‘he who enlightens’, was the leader of the independence struggle in Vietnam and served as the President of North Vietnam (1945-1969). He was a leader of the anti-colonial struggle in Asia, advocating for revolutionary action long before the establishment of the Community Party in 1930. A short book, […]
Tags: #Anti-colonial struggle #Colonialism #Equality #Ho Chi Minh #Imperialism #Revolution #Struggle #Vietnam
Teach for Arabia
After some politically-oriented books on Qatar, I was pleased to find Neha Vora’s “Teach for Arabia: American Universities, Liberalism, and Transnational Qatar” (2019). The book takes a quasi ethnographic approach to Education City (individual interviews and personal experience) and the author is reflexive about a wide range of topics and experiences. “Field” research was conducted […]
Tags: #Education City #Liberal Piety #Neha Vora #Qatar #Teach for Arabia
Confronting Empire
Eqbal Ahmad (1933-1999) is a fascinating activist academic; not the least because he came into his own in the 1960s in North Africa, largely in Algeria, where he worked with Frantz Fanon in the struggle for liberation. He was also quite close with Edward Said. He was born in India, studied in Pakistan, then the […]
Tags: #Colonialism #Confronting Empire #Eqbal Ahmad #Fanon #Post-colonial
Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice
Ambassador of Panama to the State of Qatar, Oreste Del Rio Sandoval, prepared a paper for a presentation made at Camilo Jose Cela University, Spain, on his experience in Qatar. The work turned into a book, titled ‘Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice’ (2019), published by Lusail. The title draws from a line in the national […]
Tags: #Oreste Del Rio Sandoval #Qatar #Warriors in a Time of Sacrifice
Small State, Big Politics
Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar, Mehran Kamrava, penned one of the most read / taught books on Qatar in 2013 (with a 2015 adding an updated Preface): Qatar: Small State, Big Politics. Having read a few books on Qatar, this is one of the best, although increasingly dated (the content essentially up […]
About me
Logan Cochrane
Logan is a Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last twenty years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
Featured Posts
Tags
Africa Agriculture Anthropology Books Capitalism China Civil society Climate change Colonialism Colonization Conflict Culture decolonization Democracy Development Development Studies Economics Education Ethics Ethiopia Ethnography Fellowship Food Security Gender Globalization Governance History Human Rights Inequality Interdisciplinary International development Islam Leadership Middle East Migration Participation Philosophy Policy Politics Post-doc Poverty Power Qatar Racism Resilience Revolution Rural Development Sociology South Africa SustainabilitySubscribe to receive new blog posts via email