Northwestern Qatar Helps Shape Global Media Scholarship at IAMCR 2026
Bringing together researchers from around the world, this year's conference explores the theme Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation, examining how media and communication illuminate questions of inequality, identity, power, and social change across diverse global contexts.
Northwestern Qatar will contribute through faculty research, Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South (#IAS_NUQ) initiatives, postdoctoral scholarship, undergraduate research presentations, and institutional engagement, reflecting the university's commitment to advancing evidence-based scholarship centered on the Global South. The university community will participate across more than a dozen conference sessions, ranging from paper presentations, a plenary address, multimodal exhibitions, to international collaborations.
“IAMCR is one of the leading global forums for advancing communication and media scholarship”
"IAMCR is one of the leading global forums for advancing communication and media scholarship," said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar. "It is especially meaningful to see our faculty, researchers, postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduate students exemplifying NU-Q's commitment to academic excellence through scholarship that engages with the most pressing global questions and contributes perspectives from the Global South to international conversations."
Faculty members will present research spanning artificial intelligence, digital identities, journalism, political economy, media history, communication technologies, geographical and cultural representation. Their work reflects the breadth of scholarship emerging from Northwestern Qatar while contributing perspectives rooted in regions and communities that remain underrepresented in global communication research.
Dean Kraidy will also serve as a plenary speaker during one of the conference's flagship sessions, Communicating Peace in an Era of War, joining international scholars in examining the role of communication amid contemporary global challenges.
The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South (#IAS_NUQ) will maintain a significant presence throughout the conference. Alongside presentations by faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and undergraduate fellows, the Institute will serve as an official Digital Sponsor, hosting a conference booth showcasing its publications, research initiatives, and opportunities for international collaboration.
Postdoctoral scholars will present research examining biometric citizenship in Nepal and the temporal dimensions of carcerality in Lebanon, while #IAS_NUQ Director Clovis Bergère will share findings from his ongoing work exploring youth and digitality in Guinea-Conakry. Together, these projects demonstrate the Institute's interdisciplinary approach to examining contemporary issues through perspectives grounded in the Global South.
A defining feature of Northwestern Qatar's participation is its continued investment in research and multimodal scholarship by #IAS-NUQ undergraduate fellows. Across the conference, researchers will present documentary films, interactive digital platforms, graphic narratives, oral histories, and game-based research alongside traditional academic papers, demonstrating how evidence-based storytelling can expand the ways knowledge is produced, communicated, and experienced.
For Northwestern Qatar, participation at IAMCR 2026 reinforces the university's role as a multidisciplinary community of evidence-based storytellers focused on the Global South. Through research, teaching, and creative practice, the university continues to contribute to international conversations that deepen understanding of media, communication, technology, and society while fostering dialogue across regions, disciplines, and perspectives.
