Current Research Initiatives
Our thriving research community supports a number of initiatives related to Qatar, the Gulf region, and the world beyond.
GU-Q faculty are committed to world-class research, teaching, and public service. Our culture of scholarly inquiry and exploration supports faculty as their initiatives seek to deepen our understanding of the world and produce relevant research at a global standard.
Ismaha
The Ismaha microsite is currently under development and explores Arab women of the past and present, focusing on women’s lived realities. Visitors to the site will be able to explore short biographies, view a photo gallery, and upload their own content (which will be vetted before joining the website database). The site will feature stories of the everyday lived experiences of 100 women (picked randomly from the user-generated database), from the famous to the ordinary.
Indian Ocean
Although the Indian Ocean World has a history of interconnectivity and exchange spanning millennia, it has only recently started to attract scholarly attention. As a consequence, studies on this world lag behind those of movement and connectivity in the relatively more recent Atlantic World, for example. These connections linked the Red Sea, large swathes of the African continent, the Arabian Peninsula, the wider Middle East, the Asian sub-continent, the Far East and various islands.
Islamic Bioethics
This website aims to share information about the Islamic Bioethics Project at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. It also aims to serve as a general guide for research in the interdisciplinary field of Islamic bioethics. The website provides information on related resources, institutions, events, links, and news of interest to scholars and researchers in the field of bioethics and also to non-specialists who want to learn more about the interface between Islam and bioethics.
Tracing Waqf
WAQF (plural awqaf) is property contributed by an individual to provide services to a community. Islamic history has witnessed a range of awqaf, diverse in form and institutional affiliations, control and beneficiaries.
Recent Publications
Palestine as Metaphor
Palestine as Metaphor (Olive Branch Press, 2020) co-translated by Amira El-Zein, is a collection of interviews with the late Palestinian author and cultural icon Mahmoud Darwish.
Keys to the Beyond: Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence
Keys to the Beyond: Frithjof Schuon’s Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence (SUNY Press, 2020) by Patrick Laude explores the ways in which the work of work of Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998), one of the most influential religious thinkers of the 20th century, expands the applications of established religious terminology beyond their traditional definitions.
The Sand Catcher
The Sand Catcher ( Al-Ahliya Publishing House in Amman- Jordan, 2020), a novel by Omar Khalifah, compels the reader to view the tragedy of Palestine through a new lens, and to consider the significance of having Palestinians tell their own stories.
Student Research at Georgetown University in Qatar
GU-Q students regularly contribute to original research with the support and mentorship of
faculty as they learn to challenge and enrich the world at a regional and global level.
CIRS Research Initiatives
The Center for International and Regional Studies sponsors major studies of emerging socio-
economic and political trends in the Gulf region and funds research initiatives in the areas of
international relations, political economy, and domestic politics.