qatar university library

[crossposted from the september project blog]

a week ago, qatar university library signed up to participate in this year's september project. this is quite exciting for many reasons.

let's back up a little. for the last two quarters, mark hungerford, a phd student in communication at the university of washington, has worked as my research assistant. before going to graduate school, mark spent four years in turkey teaching english. before coming to UW, he earned his MA in journalism and middle eastern studies from the university of texas, where he wrote his thesis on how the news media portray religious people, particularly muslims and christians. mark is a serious scholar and is currently researching stereotypes and the construction of identity, especially national and religious identity.

for the last two quarters, mark has been teaching me about turkey, turkish culture, and middle eastern culture. it was mark who translated the september project into turkish. and it was mark who recently began contacting librarians in turkey, as well as in egypt, qatar, and saudia arabia. traditionally, research assistantships are opportunities where graduate students learn from professors; in this case, mark and i learned from each other.

what a thrill it was, last week, to open my email and see that qatar university library signed up to participate in this year's september project. what a thrill to learn that dalia gohary, a librarian at qatar university library, is considering a september project event that would celebrate qatar independence day (which is september 3). what a thrill to communicate and collaborate with librarians, professors, and students at a university i've never visited in a country i've never been to.

everytime a new library joins the september project, i can't help to feel that this big ball called earth gets a little bit smaller.