Northwestern Qatar opens new academic year with focus on excellence, integration, and renewal

Northwestern University in Qatar marked the start of the 2026–27 academic year with its annual Faculty and Staff Colloquium, bringing the community together to reflect on a year of growth and resilience and to look ahead to new opportunities in teaching, research, and institutional collaboration.

Opening the Colloquium, Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy reflected on Northwestern Qatar’s continued evolution as an integral part of Northwestern University and thanked faculty and staff for their contributions during a year shaped by academic achievement, institutional growth, and periods of considerable regional uncertainty.

At the center of Kraidy’s remarks was the idea of one Northwestern across three campuses. He pointed to deeper relationships with schools and units across the University, including the School of Communication, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, as well as increased opportunities for Qatar-based faculty and staff to participate in University-wide fellowships, awards, research collaborations, and leadership roles.

At the same time, he emphasized that greater integration is strengthened by Northwestern Qatar’s distinct contribution to the University: its identity as a community of evidence-based storytellers focused on the Global South.

Throughout his remarks, Kraidy returned to the four values guiding Northwestern Qatar; excellence, community, collaboration, sustainability, and how they translate into the everyday work of the institution.

Excellence, he said, combines intellectual rigor and high standards with professional and intellectual humility. Community requires mutual care, trust, and dialogue, while collaboration depends on shared responsibility and empowering people to contribute and make decisions. Sustainability, he noted, extends beyond environmental responsibility to the long-term well-being of both people and institutions.

The importance of those values was particularly evident during periods of uncertainty over the past year.

Kraidy recognized the collective effort behind Northwestern Qatar’s 2026 Graduation ceremony, which drew record attendance despite taking place amid heightened regional tensions. Teams across academic affairs, facilities, health and safety, media production, communications, and other areas worked together to deliver the ceremony while maintaining the safety and well-being of the community.

He also acknowledged colleagues involved in crisis management during periods of regional conflict and travel disruption, highlighting their work to respond to rapidly changing circumstances, communicate with the community, and maintain essential operations.

The Colloquium also highlighted growing global interest in Northwestern Qatar, with Director of Admissions Sara Viloria Canosa presenting an overview of the incoming class and the University’s recruitment efforts. Northwestern Qatar received a record 1,706 applications, a 14 percent increase over the previous year, with the incoming cohort of more than 160 students representing 81 schools and 25 nationalities.

Viloria Canosa also outlined expanded recruitment and outreach efforts, including school visits, global events, pre-college programming, digital campaigns, and closer alignment of admissions systems and processes with Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

Academic excellence and faculty scholarship were another focus of the day. A Research and Creative Scholarship Panel, introduced by Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Zachary Wright, featured Hasan Mahmud and Torsten Menge from the Liberal Arts Program, and João Queiroga and Kirsten Pike from the Communication Program.

The panel reflected the breadth of research and creative work underway at Northwestern Qatar, with discussion spanning migration, power, gender, media, identity, and documentary storytelling, and highlighting how faculty across disciplines are engaging with questions rooted in the Global South.

The day also featured an NU-Q institutes panel with Venus Jin, Associate Dean for Education and Founding Director of the AIM Lab; Clovis Bergère, Director of the Institute for Advanced Study; and Alfredo Cramerotti, Director of the Media Majlis. Hosted by Assistant Dean of Communications and Public Affairs, Nisar Keshvani, the discussion highlighted the role of the University’s institutes and platforms in advancing research, experimentation, public engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

A final departmental panel brought together Victoria Ng’eno, Interim Library Manager; Michael McDonough, Director of Health, Safety, Security and Environment; and David Donaghue, Director of Business and Finance. Curated by Associate Dean for Administration and Chief Operations Officer Jamie Shaw, their presentations offered a closer look at the operational work supporting the academic mission, from campus services and community safety to institutional stewardship and resource management.

Across the day, faculty and staff also heard updates on academic programs, research initiatives, campus operations, and the University’s expanding calendar of public programs.

The coming year will feature lectures, panels, and forums addressing issues ranging from platform work and the gig economy to the black radical tradition and new perspectives on the Global South. New academic leadership appointments and continued development of Northwestern Qatar’s institutes, programs, and research initiatives will further support collaboration across disciplines.

Kraidy closed the Colloquium by returning to the idea of renewal and the responsibility universities carry toward future generations.

For Northwestern Qatar, he said, sustainability means creating the conditions for people and institutions not simply to endure, but to thrive. The work of educating students, producing knowledge, and strengthening institutions today is therefore inseparable from the future those efforts help create.

As Northwestern Qatar begins another academic year, Kraidy encouraged faculty and staff to approach that responsibility with confidence, gratitude, and a shared commitment to shaping the institution’s future.

The Colloquium was followed later in the week by Northwestern Qatar’s 19th Convocation, formally welcoming the Class of 2030 and beginning a new chapter in the University’s academic year.