Best e-portfolio
Fatima AL-Naimi
E-Portfolio: Social Movements and Citizen Activism in the Digital Age: The Role of the Media in the Campaign for Women’s Right to Drive in Saudi Arabia
https://sites.google.com/georgetown.edu/e-portfolio/home
Best Thesis
Irene Promodh
FM Radio and the Malayali Diaspora in Qatar: At Home Overseas
Recent scholarship on trans-oceanic exchanges between the Persian Gulf and South Asia has delved into previously neglected minutiae of everyday migrant life beyond labour. Combining ethnographic research and media content analyses, I build on this scholarship through a novel study of vernacular radio as a critical means of sustaining South Indian (Malayali) diasporic communities betwixt and between their home and host societies. This paper shows, firstly, the interwovenness of work and leisure in the everyday lives of Malayali migrants in Qatar; and secondly, the role played by radio listenership and production practices in crafting distinctive ethnolinguistic spatialities of sound (sabdam) via sonic connections that transcend the binary between being at home and abroad. Paying attention to sonic waves and networks that bind together radio stations and audiences in Qatar across work and home spaces, I argue that diasporic vernacular radio both reinforces and challenges notions of ‘Malayali-ness’ within the Gulf Malayali community (bandham) and beyond.
Published version: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1838268
Faculty mentor: Uday Chandra
Best Reflective Essay
Hend Abdulaziz Al-Thani
Raising Your Voice: The Power of Voice Within a Society
Who hasn’t been affected by the recent global pandemic? The world did come to a halt for a brief moment, but that still didn’t stop the people from speaking up. The video you are about to see highlights the key theme I found amongst my classes in both Northwestern University and Georgetown University- the concept of VOICE. Mass protesters took their issues to the street despite having a complete lockdown. Taking this minor helped me realize the importance of voice, not just within a community but within an individual, as it creates your powerful way of thinking.
Faculty mentor: Banu Akdenizli
Best Translation of Research
Abdulaziz Jassim Al-Thani
Media Coverage of Muslims Leading Up to the 2016 Elections
Can the media influence electoral behavior and outcomes? A theme I have identified during my academic journey towards the Media and Politics minor is the power of the media in influencing the way people perceive a specific group, and how this can in turn influence the way they vote. For example, constant negative coverage of Muslims by the American news network misinforms many Americans about Muslims and Islam. When elections come, this misinformation has the power to influence its outcomes. As we witnessed with President Donald Trump, his Islamophobia rhetoric and agenda allowed him to win voters in a number of key swing states. Thus, combined with a powerful narrative, the media can influence the way people vote. With the rise of right-wing populism elsewhere in the world, this phenomenon is likely to be more and more commonplace, and hence it is ever more important to understand its effects.
Faculty mentor: Abraham Abusharif
AND
Fatima ALEmadi
National Approaches to Foreign Branding: Two Middle East Case Studies
In our highly globalized and interdependent world, nations are increasingly seeking to distinguish themselves in every possible way, and one way to achieve that has been through nation branding. Not only that, but nation branding is able to facilitate a state’s effort in achieving its national interests and strategies, whether it was a small state or a powerful one. Therefore, states are notably resorting to nation branding to create a positive image for themselves and gain the advantages such image produces. The ways and the fields in which states have concentrated their branding efforts vary, and their successes and failures in branding also vary, since some states have been more successful than others. Two cases that are worth highlighting are Qatar and Turkey, which have had successful branding efforts in multiple spheres. Accordingly, this presentation explores the branding efforts of Qatar and Turkey and the various influential spheres they have capitalized on.
Faculty mentor: Rory Miller
