Focus on Faculty: Ganesh Seshan
Ganesh Seshan, who joined the SFS-Qatar Faculty in 2006 as an economist, was recently awarded a $485,000 grant, Qatar: A Study of Migrant Families, under the first cycle of the National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) that is administered by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). Working in collaboration with Dean Yang, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, USA, Ganesh will utilize a field experiment approach in designing and testing new products that takes advantage of the synergy between the demand for telecommunication and remittance services by migrants in Qatar. It would be carried out in partnership with local telecommunication providers and financial institutions. The outcome of these original interventions can potentially increase remittances and foster more productive use of remittances at the household level.
For Ganesh, SFS-Qatar offers an opportunity to be in a dynamic region of the world with the advantage of proximity to developing countries such as the Indian subcontinent, MENA and Africa. In addition to his grant, he is involved with an SFS-Qatar service-learning program entitled “Labor Equations” which aims to expose our students to the conditions of migrant workers in Qatar. Under this project students are interviewing not only the migrants in Qatar but their family members in their country of origin in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the role of migration and its contribution to the development process.
After his work at the World Bank, where his focus was on research, Ganesh particularly likes his students at Georgetown, “The students that I taught for the core economic classes were eager to express their opinions and to engage in debate with their classmates. This was quite refreshing and certainly a quality worth bearing in mind when designing a course. I am looking forward to engaging their minds and witnessing their personal growth in the semesters to come at SFS-Qatar.”
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Events Calendar
Upcoming SFS-Qatar Events
- Dec 1, 5:30pm: Faculty Film Series - Daughter of Keltoum
- Dec 6, 6pm-8pm: Monthly Dialogue: Kai-Henrik Barth
- Jan 11, 6pm-7:30pm: Monthly Dialogue: Robert Lieber
SFS-Qatar News
- Georgetown University in Qatar Offers Pre-College Series to Hoya Hopefuls
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar just concluded the Georgetown Pre-College Series (GPS) which gave prospective undergraduates a taste of college life and a unique opportunity to gain valuable information on the admissions process. (November 22, 2009) - Students Get Hands-On Lesson in Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution
On November 13 and 14, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) and Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) hosted a crisis simulation exercise for students at Education City. (November 22, 2009) - Student Gets Education at International Finance Conference
This October, Georgetown student Miodrag Stamboldziev (SFS ’11) was able to put his international relations education to use while attending the Annual Meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Istanbul, Turkey. (November 08, 2009)
