​The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies launched the Fifth Arab Graduate Students Conference (AGSC) on Saturday, 3 October 2026. Held in person from October 3-5, the conference brings together 54 researchers from nearly 50 Western universities, each presenting research drawn from their doctoral projects. The first day of the conference featured a variety of themes, addressing areas of political thought, authoritarian governance, academic mobility, migration and mental health, refugee experiences, and the politics of digital representation.

The three-day event included 10 sessions and explored topics across politics and international relations; economics, public policy, energy, and urban studies; conflict/settler colonialism studies; sociology and psychology; migration and refugee studies; history, philosophy, literature, linguistic, and cultural studies. More than 44 academics will serve as discussants and provide feedback to each participant.

The first day of the conference kicked off with opening remarks delivered by Dr. Ayat Hamdan, ACRPS Researcher and Chair of the AGSC Organizing Committee. She highlighted that the conference serves as a bridge between Arab doctoral students at Western universities and the Arab academic community, providing participants with an opportunity to present and discuss their research projects with academics, engage with ongoing research in the Arab world, and build academic and professional connections. This was followed by an address by Dr. Harith Hassan, Academic Director of the Arab Center, in which he introduced the Arab Center’s multiple research units and its academic programs. He further highlighted the Center’s publications, noting that its publishing house participates in international book fairs and has published 925 titles. He introduced the Center’s six peer-reviewed academic journals, namely Siyasat Arabiya, Omran, Tabayyun, Ostour, Hikama, and the English-language Al-Muntaqa. He also introduced the Center’s annual publication, Istishraf. Together, the journals and annual publication have produced 264 issues to date. Meanwhile Dr. Amal Ghazal, Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, introduced the university, which was established in 2015 as an independent institution for graduate studies, with Arabic as the primary language of instruction and research. She outlined its two schools: the School of Social Sciences and Humanities and the School of Economics, Administration and Public Policy, as well as its academic program, which includes 14 master’s programs in the former, four in the latter, as well as eight doctoral programs. She emphasized the institute’s commitment to its students and to producing rigorous Arabic scholarship that addresses issues relevant to the region while engaging critically with knowledge produced in different contexts, including Western scholarships. The opening session concluded with an open discussion, during which doctoral students raised questions about the Arab Center and the Doha Institute, their research and academic programs, and opportunities for publication and scholarly collaboration.

The first day kicked into gear with four consecutive sessions held simultaneously across six thematic segments, during which 24 researchers presented their papers, followed by comments from academics specializing in the respective fields. The presentations were organized under six sections: Politics and International Relations; Economics, Public Policy, Energy, and Urban Studies; Conflict and Settler Colonial Studies; Sociology and Psychology; Migration and Refugee Studies; and History, Philosophy, Literature, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies.

For the Politics and International Relations segments, Ramadan Alatrsh explored the concept of the state through the political thought of Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, and Hegel in his paper, titled “The State as Domination, Institution, and Meaning: A Comparative Analysis of Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, and Hegel”. Alatrsh compared how domination, institutions, and normative meaning shape different understandings of political order. In “Clerics and Contention in Kuwait,” Mostafa El Sharkawy examined political expression among Kuwaiti clerics between 2010 and 2024. Through a large dataset of social media posts, he showed how clerical political speech varies during periods of contention and differs from the state-written Friday sermons clerics are required to deliver. Meanwhile, Mostafa Hetteh presented “Institutionalizing Unequal Political Belonging: Dignity, Securitization, and Ethno-National Politics in Iran,” explaining how the Iranian state’s management of ethno-national diversity has contributed to unequal political belonging. He reframed Iran’s “ethnic question” as a struggle for dignity, highlighting patterns of political, social, and economic marginalization. In “Academic Freedom under Authoritarian Constitutionalism in Sudan: The Hollowing Out of University Autonomy,” Duaa Hassan examined how constitutional guarantees of university autonomy can be retained while being reconfigured in ways that enable political and military control over higher education. Amena ElAshkar’s “Before Security: Conceptualizing Security Through the Everyday Lives of Exiled Sunni Muslims in Istanbul,” focused on how exiled Sunni Muslim intellectuals and activists understand security beyond state-centered frameworks. Her presentation examined lived experiences of protection, moral responsibility, repression, and exile.

Meanwhile, over at the Economics, Public Policy, Energy, and Urban Studies segments, Mohamed Elgohari spoke on the use of law and artificial intelligence in contemporary authoritarian governance in the Middle East and North Africa region. He argued, in “From Legalism to Algorithmic Control: Law, AI, and the Reconfiguration of Authoritarian Governance in the MENA Region,” that legal frameworks are increasingly being adapted to support technologically mediated forms of control. Mohammad Hashem Krayem presented on “Liberalization and Economic Growth Under Conditions of Informality,” and explored the relationship between financial liberalization, informality, and economic growth and found that the developmental benefits of financial openness fall as informal economic activity becomes more widespread, especially in countries with higher public debt. Ayman Tibi presented “Conditional Trade Policy for Peace? The Economic Effects of QIZs in the Middle East,” analyzing Egypt’s Qualifying Industrial Zones program and its effects on exports, productivity, employment, and wages.

In the Conflict/Settler Colonialism Studies segments, Lamiaa Abed went on to address the state of academic mobility in post-conflict Syria. In her paper, “Academic Mobility in Post-Conflict Syria: Brain Drain, Push-Pull Dynamics, and the Reconstruction of Higher Education,” Lamiaa further discussed the effects of brain drain on higher education while also highlighting the potential role of returnees and diaspora academics in knowledge transfer and institutional rebuilding. In “Dispossessed Body Data: Colonial Dispossession of Body Data Through Self-Tracking Wearables,” Sara Badran examined how self-tracking wearables enable the extraction and commercialization of personal body data. Ashraf Abumousa, for his part, presented “UNRWA’s Organizational Resilience Amidst Digital Settler Colonialism,” examining how digital transformation supports humanitarian service delivery and archival preservation while also exposing the organization to surveillance, infrastructural constraints, and restricted digital access.

In Sociology/Psychology, Jihad Rosty Othman presented research on immigrant mental health in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through his paper titled, “Identifying the Factors Explaining Immigrant’s Mental Health in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across Migration Stages,” Jihad explained how factors including age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, and occupation shaped mental health outcomes across migration stages. In “Prioritizing Elements of Culturally and Religiously Sensitive Maternity Care for Muslim Women in Australia: Findings from a Nominal Group Technique Study,” Hajer Jemai explained how Muslim women in Australia often navigate a maternity system that fails to recognize their religious, cultural, and spiritual identities, leading to detrimental effects on their mental health. In “Child Marriage in Canada: Prevalence, Policy, and Public Awareness,” Fatima Qaraan presented on the relevant legal frameworks, and gaps in policy enforcement in Canada regarding child marriages. Meanwhile, Radja Chinoun presented “Mapping Belonging: Muslim Students’ Experiences of Belonging and Mattering in US Higher Education,” exploring how identity, campus climate, and institutional environments shape the experiences of Muslim students and their inclusion and academic life in US universities.

In Migration/Refugee Studies, Malika Salah examined the lived experiences of Arab Muslim refugee women in Lebanon in her paper “What Does it Mean to be Human? Coloniality and the Lived Experiences of Arab Muslim Women in Refugee Camps”. She explored how humanitarian systems, camp governance, and wider structures of coloniality shape everyday experiences and hierarchies of human worth. With a presentation on “‘Release the Cat’”: Symbolic Annihilation and the Associational Realities of Syrian and Afghan Organizations in Turkey,” Basma El Doukhi addressed the Syrian and Afghan organizations in Turkey and the use of the “Refugee-Led Organization” label, examining how such categories can limit organizational diversity, constrain autonomy, and expose associations to political and institutional pressures. Bayan Anouz presented “The Diaspora as a Transformative Force – Agency, Resources, and Challenges of the Syrian Diaspora in the Context of Political Transformation in Syria,” examining how Syrian diaspora actors in Germany mobilize expertise, networks, and other resources to contribute to reconstruction while navigating structural constraints. In “‘Blessed are the Strangers’: Egyptian Exiles’ Navigation of Legality and Citizenship in Istanbul,” Bilal Hisham examined how Egyptian exiles navigate legal ambiguity, residency, and citizenship in Turkey. His presentation highlighted how bureaucratic and humanitarian frameworks influence mobility, rights, and sense of belonging.

In History, Philosophy, Literature, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies, Akram Alashqar’s presentation focused on the systematic erasure of Palestine across digital space. In “Untitled: My Journey Through Desktop Documentary Filmmaking to Uncover the Voice of Palestine,” and through his documentary Untitled (2025), Akram explored how screen recording and digital archives can challenge dominant narratives and preserve Palestinian memory. Ali Alrifae presented on “The Trachoma Paradox in French-Mandate Syria and Lebanon (1918–1940): Institutional Neglect and Selective Health Priorities,” and through it he examined how selective colonial health priorities contributed to persistent inequalities there. Nour Hariri on the other hand presented “The Crisis of Science and the Question of Progress: ‘We’, Modernity, and Pre- and Post-Modernity,” offering an epistemological critique of the modern concept of progress and exploring the relationship between modernity, postmodernity, decolonial thought, and artificial intelligence. In “Tracing the Dynamics of Readership through Paratexts: Rodosīzāde’s Ottoman-Turkish Translation of Wafayāt al-Aʿyān as a Case Study,” Hicham Bouhadi used biographical dictionary compiled in the late thirteenth century to trace the social and cultural networks that shaped the work’s readership and reception in the Ottoman period. Mohamed Zalalo’s “Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in Arabic and Spanish Sources: A Comparative Study,” compared the Morisco expulsion between 1609 and 1614 and highlighted differences in the preservation and interpretation of these Spanish and Arabic sources and argued for greater integration of Arabic testimonies into the historiography of the period.

Since its launch in 2018, the conference has brought together 287 participants from more than 140 universities across Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Australia, including those participating in this year’s edition. Participating doctoral students praised the conference experience and the opportunities it provided for learning and exchanging expertise. Fatima Qaraan highlighted the importance of the conference in correcting stereotypes and misconceptions about the region, particularly in the field of education, and emphasized the sense of equality she experienced among participants. Reflecting on the insightful nature of the conference, Fatima Qaraan said: “There is so much to be learned. There’s a lot of stereotypes and misunderstandings about the Middle East, especially when it comes to education. We’re all here to be educated, we’re all equal, and that’s really the sense that I’ve been gathering so far at the conference.” Lamiaa Abed added: “Overall the experience was very great. I do recommend students to participate in such a conference because it’s very insightful and rewarding.”

The conference will continue through Monday, 5 October 2026, with researchers presenting and discussing papers across the six thematic segments outlined previously. The program will conclude with an introductory session on the Arab Encyclopedia project, “Arabica.”

For more information about the conference, please see the full program and conference booklet.