Scholars from Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) will contribute research on media, culture, and society at the 2026 Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, taking place November 21–24 in Boston. Across seven panels, their contributions will examine how solidarity, identity, and power take shape through digital platforms, television, sound, food, and representations of conflict.
The program features nine contributors presenting eight papers and serving in panel leadership and discussant roles. Together, their work connects contemporary questions about technology and political life with historical and cultural inquiry, reflecting NU-Q’s commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship centered on the Middle East and the broader Global South.
MESA’s annual meeting brings together an international community of scholars working across disciplines to deepen understanding of the region, its peoples, and its transnational connections. The University’s participation places research grounded in regional experiences in dialogue with wider debates about how knowledge is produced, circulated, and understood.
“Understanding the Middle East requires sustained attention to its histories, cultural practices, and the lived experiences of its communities,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar. “Our scholars bring that depth of inquiry to MESA, connecting the study of media and communication with broader questions about power, identity, and social change. Their contributions reflect our commitment to producing rigorous scholarship from the region and advancing intellectual exchange across the Global South.”
A panel will connect contemporary platform cultures with the history of Gulf television. Yasemin Celikkol’s research on the platform life of şalvar in contemporary Turkey approaches digital culture through the lens of “algorithmic folklore.” Recent alumna and #IAS_NUQ undergraduate fellow Maryam Al-Musleh will present a textual analysis of Abdul-Aziz El-Nimesh’s portrayal of Umm Alioui on Gulf television during the 1960s and 1970s, examining the performance of femininity through a cross-gender role.
Al-Musleh’s participation highlights the place of emerging researchers within NU-Q’s scholarly community, bringing work developed by a recent graduate into an international forum alongside established scholars.
“Our scholars bring that depth of inquiry to MESA, connecting the study of media and communication with broader questions about power, identity, and social change. Their contributions reflect our commitment to producing rigorous scholarship from the region and advancing intellectual exchange across the Global South.”
Other contributions extend the inquiry into the sensory and material dimensions of social life. Leila Tayeb will examine sound and affect in Libya in 2011 as part of a panel on music and publics. Jowel Choufani’s research on food preservation, markets, and nationhood in Lebanon will contribute to a discussion of the country as an ongoing social and political project. These papers broaden the program’s engagement with how people experience and negotiate political change through everyday practices.
Questions of representation, evidence, and knowledge will also feature prominently. Heather Jaber will examine sovereignty, affect, and digital war imagery in the Israeli war on Lebanon and Gaza. Osman Osman will explore the role of knowledge entrepreneurs in Al Jazeera’s coverage of Sudan and the definition of genocide. Presented within a panel on visual regimes of war, evidence, and colonial violence, the papers bring distinct approaches to the study of how conflict is mediated and interpreted.
Sulafa Zidani, an affiliate of NU-Q’s Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South (#IAS_NUQ), is organizer and chair of a panel on how Arabness is mediated through cultural production globally. The panel intervenes in both Middle East Studies and media studies, with papers exploring food culture, humor, image activisim, and reality television.
Sami Hermez will contribute as discussant to a panel on extractive states in the Middle East, extending NU-Q’s participation into scholarly exchange on state power and extraction. In a panel on solidarity and social media, Yasmeen Mekawy will examine desire, play, and the emotional dimensions of digital engagement.
The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South will host a booth in the MESA Book Exhibit throughout the meeting. Institute staff will showcase #IAS_NUQ_Press publications focused on the Arab region, including undergraduate fellow papers and Arab Media Briefs, and share information about visiting fellowship opportunities and upcoming programs on Arab media.
Alongside its annual engagement with ICA and IAMCR, NU-Q’s participation at MESA connects its research community with scholars across regional studies, the humanities, and the social sciences. The breadth of this year’s contributions demonstrates how its multidisciplinary community of evidence-based storytellers brings media and communication scholarship into conversation with the histories, cultures, and societies of the Global South.
