Qatar Foundation University College to Lead Discussions at Gathering of Middle East Scholars

Qatari media is report­ing that a col­lege at Hamad Bin Khal­i­fa Uni­ver­si­ty, a mem­ber of the Qatar Foun­da­tion, is expect­ed to lead dis­cus­sions dur­ing one of the largest annu­al gath­er­ings of Mid­dle East schol­ars. Accord­ing to a report in The Peninsula:

Octo­ber 18, 2021 The Col­lege of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy (CPP) at Hamad Bin Khal­i­fa Uni­ver­si­ty (HBKU) will be lead­ing dis­cus­sions at one of the largest annu­al gath­er­ings of Mid­dle East schol­ars when the Mid­dle East Stud­ies Asso­ci­a­tion (MESA) hosts its 55th annu­al meet­ing from Novem­ber 29 to Decem­ber 3. The vir­tu­al meet­ing will draw schol­ars from across the world to dis­cuss the most press­ing issues fac­ing the region, and the field of high­er edu­ca­tion. The pan­el dis­cus­sion, themed “Com­par­a­tive Per­spec­tives on the Wel­fare State and Social Pol­i­cy in a Neolib­er­al Era” will fea­ture three papers look­ing into eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal issues.

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Accord­ing to its web­site, the US-based Mid­dle East Stud­ies Asso­ci­a­tion (MESA) is a pri­vate, non-prof­it aca­d­e­m­ic soci­ety that brings togeth­er schol­ars, edu­ca­tors, and those inter­est­ed in study­ing the region from all over the world,. It has over 2,800 mem­bers and serves as an umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion for more than fifty insti­tu­tion­al mem­bers and thir­ty-six affil­i­at­ed organizations.

Based at the Qatar Edu­ca­tion City, Hamad Bin Khal­i­fa Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed in 2010. Its Col­lege of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy has con­tributed to an MA pro­gram led by the university’s Col­lege of Islam­ic Stud­ies, designed for work­ing pro­fes­sion­als from across the Mid­dle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

One of the Col­lege of Islam­ic Stud­ies Advi­so­ry Board mem­bers is John Espos­i­to, the for­mer head of George­town University’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Cen­ter for Mus­lim-Chris­t­ian Under­stand­ing, for­mer US State Dept. advi­sor, and a long-term sup­port­er of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, who has had mul­ti­ple affil­i­a­tions with GMB groups. The Col­lege of Islam­ic Stud­ies is also the home of the Research Cen­ter for Islam­ic Leg­is­la­tion and Ethics (CILE), launched in 2012 and for­mer­ly head­ed by Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood fig­ure Tariq Ramadan. In Sep­tem­ber 2021, HBKU signed a three-year mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing – to be facil­i­tat­ed by the CIS – with the Inter­na­tion­al Islam­ic Uni­ver­si­ty of Malaysia (IIUM), per­haps the most impor­tant uni­ver­si­ty for the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood.

The Qatar Foun­da­tion was estab­lished in 1995 by the for­mer Qatari Emir and his wife, Sheikha Moza, moth­er of the cur­rent Emir who serves as its Chair­per­son. Its web­site says that Qatar Foun­da­tion com­pris­es more than 50 enti­ties work­ing in edu­ca­tion, research, and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment. Qatar Foundation’s flag­ship ini­tia­tive is the Qatar Edu­ca­tion City in Doha, which also hosts the Doha cam­pus­es of Ivy League US universities.