Tribune News Network
Doha
Northwestern Qatar (NU-Q) Dean and CEO Marwan M Kraidy has been elected as the chair of the board of directors of the New York-based American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for a term until 2027. ACLS is dedicated to the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning within the humanities and social sciences.
Kraidy has been a long-serving member of the ACLS board, most recently serving as secretary. In this new role, he will work closely with ACLS President Joy Connolly on organisational direction and policies, oversight of investments, and allocation of funds. His leadership will help shape the future of ACLS while continuing to support its mission to strengthen relations among national academic societies committed to these fields of studies.
“All of us at ACLS are honoured and delighted that Marwan Kraidy is serving as board chair, and I am glad to be working closely with him. He is an outstanding scholar and an empathetic, energetic leader whose advice and support has already made an impact on our work. His insight—as a faculty member, global administrator, and ACLS fellow and supporter—will be essential as we develop our new strategic plan and continue in our mission to advance the humanities and social sciences,” said ACLS President Joy Connolly.
A scholar of global communication and an authority on Arab media, culture, and politics, Kraidy is a leading figure in global media studies.
His acclaimed book, ‘The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World’, which won the Best Book Award from the International Communication Association’s Division of Global Communication and Social Change in 2017, was partly developed during his 2014 fellowship with ACLS and the National Endowment for Humanities.
Kraidy and his wife, Ute, are currently sponsoring a new ACLS fellowship, the ACLS Marwan M and Ute Kraidy Centennial Fellowship in the Study of the Arab World and Latin America, which aims to support scholars conducting humanities and interpretive social sciences on the Arab and Latin American regions.
“This is a critical time for advancing knowledge production about the global human experience,” said Kraidy. “I am looking forward to supporting the mission of ACLS by fostering a more inclusive and expansive understanding of humanistic scholarship. Together, we will work to ensure that various perspectives are integrated into humanistic inquiry, thereby enriching our collective knowledge and addressing global challenges.”
Kraidy joined the ACLS board of directors when he was at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as associate dean for administration and professor of global communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.
He was also the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics and Culture and founding director of the Centre for Advanced Research in Global Communication, dedicated to the advanced study of the diversity of global media and cultures under the rubric of “globalization from below.”
Kraidy has been the Edward W Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut, the Albert Bonnier Jr Professor of Media Studies at Stockholm University, the Chaire Dupront at Sorbonne-Universités in Paris, the Dr Elizabeth Chopin Endowed Professor at Webster University-Vienna, and visiting professor at universities in China, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the U.S.
With Kraidy at the helm of one of the most influential councils in the humanities and social sciences, this election represents another milestone in his distinguished career and reaffirms Kraidy and Northwestern University’s commitment to academic excellence and humanistic scholarship.
