The students collected oral folk tales and transcribed them in Arabic. The Arabic text was then given to Qatar University students who translated it into English. VCUarts Qatar students then illustrated the folk tales in preparation for publication. The resulting book, The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf, was published by Berkshire Academic Press in 2013 and came in third out of 88 projects nominated for Qatar National Research Fund’s 5th Research Competition. Students who worked on this project included Al Hussein Wanas (B.F.A. ’11, M.F.A. ’13), Felicity Ulmer (B.F.A. ’14), Fatma Al Remaihi (B.F.A. ’10), Abdulla Al-Kuwari (B.F.A. ’14), Mariam Al-Sarraj (B.F.A. ’11), Wafaa Al Saffar (B.F.A. ’11), Sara Almulla (B.F.A. ’11), Reem Al Hajeri (B.F.A. ’11), Noora Al Sulaiti (B.F.A. ’14), Joanne Bermejo, Ghada Al Suwaidi (B.F.A. ’15), Fatma Maki (B.F.A. ’17), Zoë Donald, Nada Hammada (B.F.A. ’13), Leila Natsheh (B.F.A. ’13), Yasmen Al-Abdulla (B.F.A. ’14), Alanood A. Al-Thani (B.F.A. ’13), Amber Ericson, Rana Jubara (B.F.A. ’13), Khadija Safri (B.F.A. ’11), Noora Al-Khulaifi (B.F.A. ’12), Sahar Mari (B.F.A. ’10), Ameera Makki (B.F.A. ’11), Maryam Al-Khalifa (B.F.A. ’12), Abdulla Al Gosaibi (B.F.A. ’11), Nawar Al Mutlaq (B.F.A. ’11), Mashaer Alyaarabi (B.F.A. ’11) and Ahood Al-Dafa (B.F.A. ’12). Anthology of poetry from the Arabian Gulf Another important contribution that VCUarts Qatar made to culturally relevant literature for the region was the student-collected poetry anthology called Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry (Ithaca Press). Supported in part by a 2011 UREP grant, the work presents a diverse and exciting collection of poems by poets from Qatar and the region.
OPPOSITE TOP TO BOTTOM // Khatt: A Typographic Journey through Egypt, a book by Associate Professor Basma Hamdy, 2018. // Associate Professor Basma Hamdy, 2018. ABOVE L TO R // Book launch, Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry, 2012. // Assistant Professor Matthias Determann, 2018. Source: Matthias Determann // Student drawings for The Donkey Lady publication project, 2010.
The anthology was conceived in response to the lack of translated poetry collections in the Gulf. Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Patty Paine explained that she and her creative writing students found themselves at a loss for regional texts to study and wondered why this was so. Paine found herself, along with co-editors and students, hard at work collecting poems from writers from the region. The book launch highlighted the importance of the work in expanding the representation of the region and giving voice to the little-known emotional geography of the Arabian Gulf countries and their people. Taking place in 2012 over three days, the launch covered two readings and three panel discussions. As evidenced by the performances and discussions the launch engendered, the text provides a window into the hearts and minds of writers who are at once both representative of their nations and individuals with unique voices and styles.
Patty Paine, Samia Touati Dietz and Jeff Lodge edited Gathering the Tide, while VCUarts Qatar Graphic Design students Nawar Al-Mutlaq (B.F.A. ’11), Aisha Al-Naama (B.F.A. ’15), Al Hussein Wanas (B.F.A. ’11, M.F.A. ’13) and Ameera Makki (B.F.A. ’11) worked on the cover design. History books on Arab World earn critical acclaim Assistant Professor Jörg Matthias Determann is the author of three books on Arab history. His first book, Historiography in Saudi Arabia: Globalization and the State in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris) won critical acclaim. Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca put the book at the top of its list of “key references” on the kingdom in 2016. His next book, Researching Biology and Evolution in the Gulf States: Networks of Science in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris) was reviewed by Alan Weber of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, who asserted that the book “represents a ground-breaking study with a wealth of accurate and valuable detail—a topic that has not been thoroughly investigated in modern historiography. The monograph will be useful not only to historians and sociologists of science, but also to scholars in the fields of education, Gulf Studies, and Islamic Studies.” Determann’s third book, published in 2018 was titled Space Science and the Arab World: Astronauts, Observatories and Nationalism in the Middle East (I.B. Taurus). James Clay Moltz of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, endorsed the book along with Daniel Stolz of Northwestern University, and it immediately caught media attention. Determann served as an advisor and interviewee for a CNN show on Arab space exploration within the series Inside the Middle East in 2018. He was also invited to contribute to a radio documentary on Islam and space exploration within the program America Abroad, and was interviewed by Al Jazeera for a documentary in September 2018. Christopher Gainor, president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada wrote: “This book provides a fresh perspective on life in this part of the world and on the history of space exploration.”