GU-Q Professor Embarks on a Book Tour of Digital Middle East

Award-winning author and Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) Professor Mohamed Zayani has hit the road to share the finding of his newly released book Digital Middle East: State and Society in the Information Age.

The book, which features case studies by scholars and experts from around the world, is the result of a multi-year collaborative research initiative by GU-Q’s premier research institute, the Center for International and Regional Studies. Zayani recently presented the findings of the book at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, and is scheduled to speak at the upcoming World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies.   

Published by Oxford University Press, the book sheds a critical light on ongoing changes that are deeply intertwined with the adoption of information and communication technologies in the Middle East. It offers insights into how these unfolding digital transformations are playing out in the social, cultural, political, and economic spheres while also seeking to uncover the various disjunctions and tensions that have marked such a digital turn.

“This book seeks to unravel the multifaceted digital transformations the MENA region has been undergoing and to understand how these unfolding changes are affecting state and society both at the micro and macro levels,” said Zayani at a book launch of Digital Middle East. “Mapping out a range of trends and developments from online socialization habits to e-government and from cyber security to smart informationalized cities, this collaborative volume paints a complex picture of a changing Middle East we are only beginning to apprehend.”

Commenting on the interdisciplinary nature of the book, Joe F. Khalil, professor of global media and communication, noted: “This groundbreaking collection is an important contribution not only to Middle East studies, but also to media and communication studies and political science.”

Digital Middle East is the most recent in a series of books published with Oxford University Press on the changing dynamics of the MENA region’s information and communication landscape. It follows from Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings (with Suzi Mirgani) and Networked Publics and Digital Contention, which received multiple accolades including the “Global Communication and Social Change Best Book Award” from the International Communication Association, the “Communication, Information Technologies and Media Sociology Book Award” from the American Sociological Association, the “Sue DeWine Distinguished Award for a Scholarly Book” from the National Communication Association, and the “The Toyin Falola Best Book Award,” from the Association of Global South Studies.