Georgetown’s Flagship Qalam Series Returns with Conversations at the Crossroads of Literature and Global Affairs

At a time when headlines suggest power, money, and technology alone shape the future, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) insists on centering the human spirit, inviting the community to discover how storytelling can spark positive change through conversations with some of the best writers of our time.

This fall, Qalam Literary Series opens its new season with British-Palestinian novelist Isabella Hammad, one of the most acclaimed literary voices of her generation. Her works—The Parisian, Enter Ghost, and Recognising the Stranger—unpack exile, colonial entanglements, and memory with searing clarity, offering tools for empathy and critical thought that no policy brief or data set can provide.

The public is invited to the GU-Q Auditorium on Tuesday, September 23 at 5:30 pm to witness an inspiring conversation between Hammad and celebrated GU-Q Writer-in-Residence Kamila Shamsie that promises to reframe how we see both history and the present moment. On September 24 at 1:00 pm Dean Safwan Masri will offer another opportunity to connect with the author during a fireside chat in the GU-Q Library.

Qalam is more than a literary series; it’s Qatar’s window to the world’s most urgent stories. Following an inaugural season featuring Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, this platform continues to spark dialogue at the crossroads of literature, politics, and lived experience, and inspire a new generation of storytellers.

Because in a fractured world, the ability to imagine a better world for all—to truly see through another’s eyes—is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.

To learn more and register, visit https://www.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/kamila-shamsie-in-conversation-with-isabella-hammad/