Northwestern Qatar Appoints New Faculty, Including First Qatari Professor

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula

Doha: Northwestern University in Qatar has welcomed eight new professors as part of its expanding faculty. The new faculty, which includes researchers and scholars in media industries, gender studies, cultural politics, and performance studies, also includes the school's first Qatari professor.

Northwestern Qatar Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy welcomed the new faculty and said they will enhance Northwestern Qatar's academic profile.“Each of these professors,” Kraidy said,“comes with a distinguished educational background and scholarship. Working with our current faculty, they will enhance the academic environment and contribute to Northwestern Qatar's global impact.” 

The new faculty brings experience in teaching and research in the fields of media, journalism, social sciences, and the humanities. With an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to instruction, the new faculty includes professors in the Liberal Arts Programme, the Communication Programme, and the Journalism and Strategic Communication Programme, with two having joint appointments.

“Northwestern Qatar's faculty,” Kraidy added,“is a remarkable group of scholars and researchers who are both educating the next generation of media and communication professionals and conducting cutting-edge research in a wide variety of disciplines. I am pleased we are able to add to this stellar group and enhance the educational experience of our students and the university's research.”

Joining the Communication Programme with joint appointments in the Liberal Arts Programme are Leila Tayeb received her PhD in performance studies from Northwestern University. Tayeb uses ethnography and archival research to explore cultural politics and the performativity of political life across theatrical and quotidian contexts and is particularly concerned with the daily experiences of civilians in urban conflict settings; Heather Jaber received her PhD in communication from the University of Pennsylvania. Joining Northwestern Qatar as an assistant professor in residence, Jaber's research analyzes digital practices of exposure in the Arab world, focusing on the role of emotions and affects in the study of geopolitics and popular culture. 

The professors joining the Journalism and Strategic Communication programme include Fatima El Issawi was a reader in journalism and media studies in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom before joining Northwestern Qatar as an associate professor in residence; Claudia Kozman is a former sports journalist who joins Northwestern Qatar as an assistant professor in residence from the Lebanese American University; Marda Dunsky is a journalism scholar and print journalist whose work engages narrative storytelling to explore the underreported aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

The Liberal Arts Programme, which provides students with an interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences education, will include the following new faculty; Haya Al Noaimi is the first Qatari professor at Northwestern Qatar. Al Noaimi, who will be an assistant professor in residence at Northwestern Qatar is a graduate of Georgetown University in Qatar where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship; Yasmeen Mekawy specializes in comparative politics of the Middle East and joins Northwestern Qatar as an assistant professor in residence after completing a post-doctoral teaching fellowship in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where she also earned her PhD in political science; and Jana Fedtke is a researcher with interests in science and technology in fiction, transnational literatures, gender studies, postcolonial theory, and film with a focus on South Asia and Africa.

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