Gala Celebration Marks 10 Years of Georgetown Achievements
On 4 February 2015, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) celebrated ten years of the university’s achievements in Education City, by bringing together government officials, members of the diplomatic community, visiting dignitaries, and special guests for a gala event on campus.
The event also officially marked the end of GU-Q’s 2-day, 10 Year Anniversary conference titled “Scapes of Power: A Critical Appraisal” featuring prominent scholars and academics from across the world.
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, who was instrumental in securing the establishment of the Georgetown campus in Qatar, was a special guest at the event.
Dean Gerd Nonneman welcomed the distinguished guests, and highlighted how much the School had developed in such a relatively short time. “Our 10-Year anniversary is a celebration of teaching, learning, and scholarship at the highest level, and we are honored that Her Highness and so many international guests have joined us in recognizing this milestone. We started with 25 students and 7 faculty members, and over the course of ten years, with the visionary support of Qatar Foundation, we have grown into a research and teaching powerhouse with 52 world-class faculty members and 212 exceptional alumni working at all levels across the spectrum of professional pursuits – from graduate school to law, media, banking, sports, the energy sector and beyond. We’re looking forward with excitement and anticipation to building on all this over the next decade.”
The dean also shared other highlights of the university, its impact on education and research, as well as its role on the local community. He highlighted their tremendous library resources open to the public, shared details on the partnerships with various regional institutions, and described current and future collaborations with other HBKU universities in developing graduate level programming.
Dr. John J. DeGioia, the president of Georgetown University main campus in Washington D.C., was in Doha to mark the occasion. Giving his thoughts on the fruition of the Qatar Foundation and Georgetown University collaboration that launched the Doha branch campus, he said: “This milestone reflects the strength of our partnerships here in Qatar and the strong ties that exist between our campuses in Washington, D.C. and Education City”. “What we have achieved here over the past ten years demonstrates the possibilities of engagement, of partnership, and our continuing call, as a university community, to seek, through knowledge and understanding, the betterment of humankind.”
The “Scapes of Power: A Critical Appraisal” conference presented a sweeping appraisal of historical and contemporary examples of political power and the cultural, social, and economic institutions through which that power is expressed, as well as identifying and analyzing nontraditional modes of power that are emerging from the dramatic political shifts currently underway worldwide.