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Northwestern University in Qatar
Education City, Qatar +974 4454 5100
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SPEAKER
Steven Salaita
Steven Salaita is professor and chair of the department of English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo. His many book publications include An Honest Living: A Memoir of Peculiar Itineraries (Fordham University Press, 2024), Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), Israel’s Dead Soul (Temple University Press, 2011), and The Holy Land in Transit (Syracuse University Press, 2006). His second novel, Jerry and Rodrigo Go to War, is due to be published by Common Notions in March.
Moderated by
Rana KazkazSPEAKER
Deborah Cohen
Deborah Cohen is the Director of Northwestern’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History. Trained as a modern Europeanist (with specialties in Germany and Great Britain), her interests run the methodological gamut, from social science-inspired comparative history to biography. Her most recent book is Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War (Random House, 2022), which won the Mark Lynton Prize, the Goldsmith Prize and the Emerson Award. Cohen was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2018. She has held fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Cohen writes regularly for The Atlantic on subjects ranging from war photography to punk rock.
Moderated by
Zachary WrightSPEAKER
Rajiv Mishra
Rajiv K. Mishra is an assistant professor in Infrastructure Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar (NUQ) having joint affiliation with the communication and liberal arts programs. He has training and exposure in the fields of computer science, internet, sociology, science policy and science & technology studies (STS). His research and teaching interests lie in large technological systems, digital health and universal health coverage, biometric governance, digital state and welfare, tinkering and makerspaces, and research methods in social sciences. He has published in prestigious international peer-reviewed journals such as Social Science & Medicine; Science, Technology and Society; Global Policy and Development.
Moderated by
Sami HermezSPEAKER
Ibrahim Abusharif
Ibrahim N. Abusharif, PhD, is an associate professor in residence in the Journalism and Strategic Communication Program. His fields of research include narrative journalism, religious studies, and the decolonization of storytelling. Specifically, his academic interests include the study of the intersections of religion and media, particularly digital media disruptions and their effects on contemporary religious authority. He also researches the origins, promulgation, and effects of key journalistic framing terminologies used in prominent Western news sources in their coverage and reportage of the Middle East and Muslim minorities in the West.
Moderated by
Ilhem AllaguiSPEAKER
Alexei Abrahams
Dr. Alexei Abrahams is an Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities at Hamad bin Khalifa University. He blends social science and computer science methods to study asymmetric conflict and information warfare, with particular application to the Palestinian struggle. He is the author of Social Media Exposed, an upcoming book on how to archive and analyze social media data in the public interest. He is also the author of numerous research papers, published at outlets such as the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Political Science Research & Methods, and the International Journal of Communications. Professor Abrahams holds a PhD in Economics from Brown University, and before joining HBKU was the digital research team lead at McGill University's Canadian Media Ecosystem Observatory.
Moderated by
Refqa Abu-RemailehSPEAKER
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen is a Professor in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. Her research focuses on journalism and citizenship, and she has authored or edited twelve books, more than 80 journal articles and 50 book chapters. For the past five years, she has served a University Dean of Research Environment and Culture at Cardiff University. She is currently President-Elect-Select of ICA. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA) and the Learned Society of Wales, where she is an elected member of Council. She holds a PhD from Stanford University, USA, and an honorary doctorate from Roskilde University, Denmark.
Moderated by
Marwan M. KraidySPEAKER
Jonathan Hardy
Jonathan Hardy is Professor of Communications and Media at the University of the Arts London. He was principal investigator for the Branded Content Governance Project, 2022-2025 (ES/W007991/1) and leads the international Branded Content Research Network. He writes and comments on media industries, media and advertising, communications regulation, and international media systems. His books include Advertising and Promotional Industries (forthcoming), Sponsored Editorial Content in Digital Journalism (editor, 2023), Branded Content: the Fateful Merging of Media and Marketing (2022), The Advertising Handbook (co-editor 2018/2011), Critical Political Economy of the Media (2014), Cross-Media Promotion (2010), and Western Media Systems (2008). He is series editor for Routledge Critical Advertising Studies.
Moderated by
Mohammed IbahrineSPEAKER
Suzi Mirghani
Suzi Mirgani is Editor/Assistant Director for Publications at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar. She is the author of several publications, including “One Hundred Years of Longing: A Story of Sudanese Cinema,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Arab Film and Media (Palgrave 2026) and “The Gulf Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers and the Creative Representation of Sociopolitical Issues in the GCC States,” in Routledge Handbook on Arab Cinema (Routledge, 2024), co-authored with Maysaa Almumin. Mirgani's creative work includes poetry, “Some Behavioral Characteristics of the Sudanese Honey Bee (Apis mellifera sudanensis)” in Mizna (2022), and films: Kamala Ishag: States of Oneness (2022); Virtual Voice (2021); Al-Sit (2020). Her debut feature Cotton Queen (2025) premiered at the Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week.
Moderated by
Sarah Kaskas