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Founder of Qatar

Founder of Qatar

In searching for alternative voices telling the history of Qatar, I found a copy of “Sheikh Jassim al-Thani: Founder of Qatar – A Historical Study of a Nineteenth Century Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula” (2015). The book was written in Arabic by Dr Omar al-Ejli, then translated into English by Abdul Salam Idrisi. The book […]

Tags: #Books #Colonial gaze #History #Jassim al Thani #Qatar

Thought Provokers
Humanitarian Work in Ethiopia’s Somali Region

Humanitarian Work in Ethiopia’s Somali Region

Lauren Carruth provides a useful introduction to Ethiopia’s Somali region, to the practices of global health, to ‘humanitarianism’, and to anthropology / ethnography with her 2021 publication: Love and Liberation: Humanitarian Work in Ethiopia’s Somali Region (Cornell University Press). The book helpfully deconstructs international / Euro-Western conceptualizations of humanitarianism and re-orients that within the Somali context (linguistic, socio-cultural, […]

Tags: #Anthropology #Ethiopia #Humanitarian #Humanitarianism #Somali

Thought Provokers
Wax & Gold

Wax & Gold

Levine’s Wax & Gold (1965) is one the ‘classics’ of Ethiopian studies in the socio-anthropological realm. Much ink has been spilled about his work (including the author himself added a Preface to the 1972 to explain his change of views), much work has also been inspired that draws on the wax and gold concept that Levine describes […]

Tags: #Culture #Ethiopia #Tradition #Wax & Gold #Wax and gold

Uncategorized

Whose Voice Matters in IPE?

New open access publication: Whose voice matters in the teaching and learning of IPE? Implications for policy and policy making Abstract: Critical decolonial assessments of International Political Economy (IPE) curricula have found a continued dominance of Euro-Western perspectives. However, these critical assessments have often been of specific programs or courses. In this article, we open the canvas wider […]

Tags: #decolonization #decolonize #Education #GPE #IPE

Research
Contemporary Qatar

Contemporary Qatar

Edited books are challenging to summarize, this post surveys some of the chapters and key points that stood out to me in this new collection, Contemporary Qatar (2021), edited by Zweiri and Al Qawasmi. Ch 1 outlines the challenges experienced by the new state, often driven by external actors but which slowed the process of state building, which […]

Tags: #Books #Contemporary Qatar #Qatar

Thought Provokers
Ethiopia & Food Security

Ethiopia & Food Security

QUOTES: “As every farmer will emphasize, there is no average household, average yield, average rainfall or average food security situation. Averages are imposed; they provide illumination but are not lived realities. Instead of focusing on averages, greater attention should be placed on the diversity of ways in which households encounter food insecurity” (p. 25-26) “One […]

Tags: #Ethiopia #Ethiopians #Famine #Food Security #Logan Cochrane

Research