Shii News – Academic Items

1.Inaugural Middle East Conference 2020 – Ideas Towards New Agendas

The Middle Eastern Studies Department (MESD) at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) in Hamad Bin Khalifa University is proud to host this inaugural two-day international conference on 20-21 April 2020 in the Education City in Doha. This is an interdisciplinary conference and we expect participants with expertise from a broad range of academic disciplines in both social sciences and humanities. The conference aims to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on Middle East studies in its quest for developing new research agendas.

Representations of the Middle East in recent years have been beset with disturbing images of conflict and civil war, radicalism and sectarian strife, ethnic and gender violence, and destruction and forced displacement. Such portrayals are not limited to popular discourse alone; the academic and research agenda too have been securitised by concerns over radicalism and identity politics. The perception that the Middle East is somehow different in an unfortunate manner from the rest of the world has thus reshaped – and arguably distorted – both public understanding and the research agenda of the region.

This conference presents an opportunity to recast the Middle East beyond the reductive daily headlines. The case for the conference and its timing emanate from an urgent need to redress a distorted research agenda which has in recent years been unduly shaped by conflict, radicalism and security issues.

The principal objective is to take steps to develop a new, more constructive agenda for Middle East studies which recognises the region’s evolving characteristics and challenges, but also sees these in the wider context of international dynamics and interactions. We encourage participants to re-think and re-imagine the epistemologies, directions and agendas of our field.

Deadline for Submission – 16 JAN 2020

More info at: https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/mec

 

 

 

2. 11th Gulf Research Meeting

July 21-23, 2020, University of Cambridge

We are soliciting paper proposals for Gulf Research Meeting workshop titled Nationalization of GCC Labor Markets: The Changing Role of Higher Education in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution to be held at the University of Cambridge on July 21-23.

 

The aim of this workshop is to compare and contrast: the outcomes of investment in human capital on nationalization of GCC labor markets in the last decades, the current state of the labor markets with a special focus on the educational preparedness, i.e. employability, of the GCC nationals to enter the fourth industrial revolution; and future prognoses related to the labor market evolution and human capital development. The latter is based on qualitative education, training, knowledge, technology and innovation; and encompasses a breadth of non-tangible skills that a population possesses such as organization, leadership, work habits, initiative, problem solving, confidence, trustworthiness, etc. (Abdullah, 2010).

While the region’s young people have attained higher education levels than their parents, they have not been able to translate their education attainment to greater income opportunities. Furthermore, the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution offers new opportunities but also presents new challenges. The potential for technology to disrupt the GCC labor market is powerful. According to the World Government Summit 2019, 45% of existing work activities in the GCC labor market are potentially automatable today which cuts across both public and private sector. This automation potential could translate into significant economic value, but it also places pressures on education systems to produce graduates with a new set of skills which is beyond academic attainment. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value Report 2019, the shortage of skilled workers by 2030 is expected to reach more than 85 million workers globally. Today the half-life of a learned skill is expected to be five years and even shorter for technical skills. Skills required today take longer to learn because of the focus on behavioral skills and soft skills. Other new technology related skills also take more time as they are highly technical and changing rapidly. The role of education is primordial to prepare graduates to fit in within these new labor market conditions. As the region moves into the 4th Industrial Revolution, the workshop will investigate the intersections of policy making, education and technology in the region.

 

Full description of the workshop can be found here http://grm.grc.net/grm2020-call-for-papers/pdf/ws7.pdf

and the application form is available here http://grm.grc.net/grm2020-call-for-papers/pdf/GRM2020-application-form.pdf

Deadline: 15 February 2020

Posted in: Academic items