Northwestern Qatar researchers to advance Middle East scholarship at 2025 MESA Annual Meeting
Dahlia El Zein, assistant professor in residence, will kick off faculty contributions, presenting her paper West African Colonial Soldiers and Race-Making in French Mandate Lebanon, on a panel entitled “The Age of World Wars.” El Zein will also serve as an organizer for the panel discussion, “Precarity, Academic Freedom, and the Profession in a Time of Genocide.”
On the second day, Professor Joe Khalil and Chafic Najem, a Global Postdoctoral Scholar at #IAS_NUQ, will take part in the panel, “Digital Media: Security, Privacy, Access, and Dysfunction.” Professor Khalil will share his paper, Reimagining Arab Audiences: Colonial Legacies, Market Forces, and Digital Transformations, while Najem will present a paper entitled Digital Media: Security, Privacy, Access, and Dysfunction. Similarly, Assistant Professor Yasemin Celikkol will present her research, Between Subversion and Accommodation: Kizil Goncalar, Islamophobia, and the Hybrid Representations of Islam in Turkish Dramas, as part of the panel “Gender and Religious Identity on Screen.”
Meanwhile, Sami Hermez, associate professor and director of the Liberal Arts Program, will organize and chair a roundtable, “After Liberation: Imagining the Future of the Levant,” that will feature his own work on the subject and the presentation of Sulafa Zidani, an #IAS_NUQ affiliate and assistant professor at Northwestern University. Hermez will also serve as a presenter or discussant on two other panels: “Precarity, Academic Freedom, and the Profession in a Time of Genocide” and “Trajectories and Afterlives of Revolution: Between Hope and Disappointment.”
On the last day of the conference, Zachary Wright, professor and associate dean for faculty affairs, will be part of the panel, “Reframing Islamic Historiography and Epistemologies: Chronologies and Intellectual Traditions, with a paper entitled Secrets from the Sahara: Shaykh Ma’ ‘Aynayn and the Scholars of Morocco.
The book covers four interconnected parts that guide readers through the emotional and creative dimensions of grief and recovery. The first part, Writing as Discovery, explores how storytelling can illuminate the hidden layers of emotion and memory. In the second part, Writing as Transformation, Meekings examines how writing can turn pain into understanding, weaving together themes of forgiveness, metaphor, and acceptance.
The third part, Writing as Renewal, encourages readers to rediscover imagination and meaning through myth, memory, and dream, reconnecting with creativity as a force for resilience and renewal. The final part, Writing as Magic, focuses on storytelling as an act of remembrance and creation, exploring how language can summon beauty and understanding from grief.
In addition to faculty contributions, the Institute will also host a booth at the MESA Book Exhibit throughout the three-day conference, showcasing #IAS_NUQ_Press publications and sharing information about upcoming fellowship and research opportunities.
Northwestern Qatar’s presence at MESA will also extend to the MESA FilmFest, where alum Sashreek Gang’s film DHARAMSHALA: The Little Lhasa, produced as part of his #IAS_NUQ Global Undergraduate Fellowship, has been selected for the festival’s 42nd edition. The MESA FilmFest allows registered participants to view selected films one week before and one week after the in-person conference.
“Our faculty bring distinctive and rigorous scholarship to the study of the Middle East, and MESA provides a global platform for sharing that work. These contributions are important not only because they reflect the depth and originality of our research, but also because they demonstrate the ways our scholars are contributing to broader conversations in the field. I am proud to see their work shaping the study of the Middle East at an international level”
This engagement at MESA represents yet another global forum where Northwestern Qatar is actively shaping scholarly conversations. By bringing nuanced research and original perspectives to an international audience, the University continues to demonstrate the impact and relevance of its community work on the region.
For more information about the conference and full program, click here.
