The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies announces the 2nd Arab Graduate Student Conference to be held online from August 9th to August 20th 2020. This conference is held every two years, with the first round held in March 2018.

This conference is the first of its kind, and through it, the Arab Center hopes to develop a link between Arab social science and humanities and Arab researchers and scholars studying abroad in Western universities. This link, according to the vision of the center, is necessary, especially since these researchers and students in Western universities usually establish their professional and research paths in the countries in which they study. Moreover, they publish the results of their research in Western academic institutions, and in the languages of those institutions. This contributes to creating a gap between the research product that they achieve and the Arab region. Hence, this conference strengthens, in an organized manner, research links between Arab researchers in Western universities, as well as between them and their colleagues in Arab research institutions. And to the extent that the conference provides an opportunity for Arab researchers to familiarize themselves with the research paths and academic projects of their colleagues in Western universities, it provides a similar opportunity for them to get acquainted with the research, methodologies and approaches that new Arab researchers produce, and involve them in the concerns and research projects of institutions in the Arab world. Through the Arab Center’s leadership, this conference also provides an unprecedented opportunity for positive interaction and reflection on joint research projects, and creates an important interactive space to discuss the future research agenda of Arab social and human sciences, and contribute to its formulation. In the same way, the conference will benefit the Arab research space by providing it with competencies formed in prestigious universities.

The Arab Center was scheduled to hold the second session of the conference last March, but it was postponed due to the conditions of the global closure resulting from the corona pandemic crisis. And with the continuation of these circumstances, the Center has decided - out of the importance of this conference and the consolidation of the tradition that it established three years ago - to hold the conference remotely, using virtual means of communication via the Internet. We will hold this conference from 9-20 August, which entails extending the conference’s events over the course of eleven days. This is an indication of the vital importance that this conference enjoys in the research agenda of the center, such that maintaining its continuity is essential to our objectives.

We will have 37 participants from universities all over the US, Europe, the UK, and Australia. The conference’s committee has coordinated with over 30 faculty discussants in each topic area, from both within the Arab Center and the Doha Institute as well as other institutions around the world, in order to provide participants valuable feedback. Each day of the conference will feature 3 to 5 sessions, with 2 concurrent working groups. These sessions will be held via the Zoom application and will provide the participants the ability to present their work, as well as get feedback from their faculty discussant. There will also be time for discussion and Q&A with the registered audience. Registration to attend the sessions will be made available here.

The booklet and schedule for the Arab Graduate Student Conference can be found here. 

For any questions or comments, please contact arabdoctorate.conf@dohainstitute.org.