Much of the world has been horrified by recent scenes of mostly Arab migrants drowning in the Mediterranean. However, migration has long been a trademark of the Middle East, and today it threatens to clear the region of its rich diversity. The lack of tolerance of minorities—both ancient, as in the Christians and Jews, as well as recent, as in the large minorities from the subcontinent in the Gulf—runs contrary to the Middle East’s long history as a cultural, ethnic, and religious mosaic. Read more »
Arab World
BBC interview with Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi on Arab art
Interview with Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi on Barjeel Art Foundation’s year-long exhibition at London’s Whitechapel Gallery with BBC’s Yalda Hakim. Read more »
Youth and Digital Media
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi’s illustrated talk looks at ways in which Arab youth — and specifically young artists from North Africa and West Asia — engage with diverse types of media to comment on and interact with current social and political events. He explores how new digital tools and platforms are instrumental in creating a network that connects artists to one another and to their community. Read more »
Why the Middle East is making giant leap with Mars mission
A project to launch a Mars probe is the Middle East’s chance to make a giant leap to the present, both symbolically and scientifically. The fact that it is staffed by young Middle Easterners and based in the region makes the project twice as important. Read more »
Social Media in the Era of ISIS
Today the social media landscape in the Middle East resembles the squares and streets of the Arab Spring cities of yore: it is a new battleground for hearts and minds between regimes, Islamists and activists; between young and old; between freedom and constraint. Read more »
Social Media in the Arab World
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, of the MIT MediaLab, speaks on social media and broadening of India-GCC relations. Read more »