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Reading Qatar

Qatar National Library   The Creation of Qatar (1979) Zahlan Histoire et Changements Sociaux au Qatar (1982) Montigny-Kozlowska Oil and Politics in the Gulf (1990) Crystal The Ottoman Gulf (1997) Anscombe The Emergence of Qatar (2005) Rahman Qatar, A Modern History (2012, 2017) Fromherz Jassim the Leader (2012) Mohamed al-Thani Qatar – Politics and the Challenges […]

Featured Articles

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 […]

Thought Provokers

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 […]

Thought Provokers

Forests to the Foreigners: Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Gabon

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/4/420 Abstract: For the past decade, the land rush discourse has analyzed foreign investment in land and agriculture around the world, with Africa being a continent of particular focus due to the scale of acquisitions that have taken place. Gabon, a largely forested state in Central Africa, has been neglected in the land rush conversations, […]

Research

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, […]

Thought Provokers

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 […]

Thought Provokers

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 […]

Thought Provokers

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 […]

Thought Provokers

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 […]

Thought Provokers

Culture and Imperialism

 Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) is a foundational text in critical studies, as of this writing was cited nearly 70,000 times. In 1993 Said wrote Culture and Imperialism, which broadens the view, broadens the literature, and engages more literature from the liberation activists and writers, but is cited less (at of this writing nearly 30,000; which […]

Thought Provokers