CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL STUDIES

Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS)

CIRS provides a number of research opportunities for faculty at GU-Q, and sponsors day-long workshops in which faculty engage with international participants in discussions on a forthcoming publication. In addition, CIRS offers grants to faculty researchers interested in carrying out original fieldwork on issues related to the Gulf, the Middle East, Asia, and beyond.

CIRS STEERING COMMITTEE

This standing committee is chaired by the Director of CIRS and includes the Associate Director of CIRS as well as four members of the faculty. The committee’s main objective is to reinforce the integration of CIRS and the GU-Q faculty by ensuring faculty input and perspective in planning CIRS events. It furthermore promotes the activities of CIRS among the faculty.

Committee Members

• Mehran Kamrava, Director of CIRS • Zahra Babar, Associate Director of CIRS • Abdullah Al-Arian, Faculty Member • Rory Miller, Faculty Member • Sonia Alonso Sáenz de Oger, Faculty Member • Mohamed Zayani, Faculty Member

CIRS FACULTY FELLOWSHIP

The CIRS Faculty Fellowship is a one-year appointment to encourage original research in support of the center’s research agenda. Fellows are asked to give a presentation of their research at a CIRS-sponsored lecture. Since 2012, CIRS has granted eight GU-Q Faculty Fellowships. The 2019-2020 GU-Q CIRS Faculty Fellows: • Uday Chandra • Karine Walther

CIRS FACULTY LECTURES

In support of its ongoing research discussions, CIRS invites faculty from GU-Q to deliver a variety of public lectures on topics of their expertise in the form of Dialogues and Focused Discussions directed at the community in Qatar. This year, the work of two GU-Q faculty members were featured at CIRS community outreach events. • Karine Walther: Dialogue Series

“American Missionaries, ARAMCO, and the Birth of the US-Saudi

Special Relationship, 1889-1955” • Uday Chandra: Lunch Talk

“Fascism 2.0: Lessons from

Democracy in India” • Uday Chandra: CURA Workshop

“The Art of Hearing and Seeing

Data”

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS THROUGH CIRS

BOOKS

Oruc, Firat, ed. 2019. Sites of Pluralism: Community Politics in the Middle East. Oxford University Press/Hurst.

Kamrava, Mehran. 2020. A Concise History of Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. King, Marcus Dubois, ed. 2020. Water and Conflict in the Middle East. London: Hurst.

Saouli, Adham, ed. 2020. Unfulfilled Aspirations: Middle Power Politics in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press/Hurst. Kamrava, Mehran, ed. 2020. Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics. London: Routledge.

Kamrava, Mehran, ed. 2019. The “Resource Curse” in the Persian Gulf. London: Routledge.

Reiche, Danyel and Tamir Sorek, eds. 2019. Sports, Politics and Society in the Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press/Hurst.

JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUES

Kamrava, Mehran. guest ed. 2019. “Nation-Building in Central Asia.” CIRS Special Issue of The Muslim World 110, no. 1. Shabana, Ayman guest ed. 2020. “Science and Scientific Production in the Middle East.” CIRS Special Issue of Sociology of Islam 8.

THE COVID PROJECT

This CIRS project provides a focused understanding of how a subset of Middle Eastern countries, Iraq, and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monarchies are being affected by and responding to the ongoing global pandemic. Contributors to the project include individuals from a number of international academic institutions, GU-Q faculty, and CIRS staff.