Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Doha, Qatar — With the start of the new academic year, the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) has welcomed more than 14 new faculty to its ranks. That list includes four faculty members from Georgetown’s Washington Campus who recently left the familiar surroundings of Washington, DC, to move to Doha. Professors Kai-Henrik Barth, Jo Ann Moran Cruz, Matthew Tinkcom and Daniel Westbrook decided to join the SFS-Qatar faculty for a variety of reasons. For the most part, the new SFS-Qatar faculty members wanted to build a deeper understanding of the Middle East.

Kai-Henrik Barth, a Visiting Assistant Professor at SFS-Qatar, cited living abroad as one of the factors behind his decision to join the campus here. He is interested in meeting people with very different perspectives, learning more about Islam, studying Arabic and traveling within the Gulf region and beyond.

From 2002 to 2008, Barth was a member of the faculty in Georgetown’s Security Studies Program (SSP) on the main campus, where he also served as the program’s director for the last three years. His current research focuses on the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation, with a particular emphasis on Iran.

“My research focuses on nuclear developments (civilian and military), in particular on the nuclear aspirations of the GCC and Iran. “My students have different views on such political matters, and I can learn from their perspective,” he said. Barth hopes that moving to the Gulf region will increase his understanding of regional culture and politics.

At the Washington campus, Matthew Tinkcom is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Communication, Culture and Technology and Affiliated Faculty with the Department of English. He teaches courses on film history and theory, media theory, critical theory, cultural studies and gender studies.

Tired of what he calls stereotypical renderings of the Arab region and culture in the US media, Tinkcom wanted to see a part of the Arab World for himself. He also wanted to meet students with a different perspective from those in Washington, DC.

Tinkcom said of his classes in Doha, “It’s more of a challenge at the beginning to get students to engage with faculty and with each other in the classroom. Once they do, though, they are as passionate and as engaged as their colleagues in Washington: in many instances, even more so.”

Jo Ann Moran Cruz was very pleased with smaller class sizes and increased opportunities to interact with the students. Moran Cruz is teaching two courses at SFS-Qatar this fall: Themes in European Civilization: Toleration and Intolerance; and Humanities and Writing: the Novels of E.M. Forster.

As an Associate Professor of History and former chair of the department, Cruz was on the team that came to Qatar in 2004 to assess the feasibility of a campus in Doha. She has also directed international initiatives in the Provost's Office at Georgetown and worked to establish the Catholic Studies Program at Georgetown.

Incoming faculty have also found the experience has provided valuable opportunities for research collaboration.

Coming to Qatar has allowed Cruz and her colleague Haifa Khalafallah to collaborate more intensively on a joint project--a historical examination of the religion’s role in legitimating governments in the Christian and Islamic Sunni worlds.

Daniel Westbrook taught for several semesters at the National Economics University in Hanoi and at the Fulbright Economics Program in Ho Chi Minh City. He regularly teaches economic statistics, econometrics, international trade, and microeconomic principles.

“My new colleague Alexis Antoniades suggested that we collaborate on research focused on assessing the impact of higher education in Qatar, with special focus on Education City. We are both excited about the possibility of pursuing that project with appropriate data,” said Westbrook.

“Jim Reardon-Anderson has pointed out that Education City is the first instance in which world-class universities provide their main-campus degree programs directly to students abroad -- a real example of globalization. The opportunity to be a part of this experiment was irresistible,” said Westbrook.

For complete biographies on SFS-Qatar faculty members, please visit the faculty page.