The Critical Gulf Studies Network aims to create a vibrant interdisciplinary community within and across the University of Edinburgh, bringing together researchers and academics whose work intersects with the Gulf region. Network Members Dr Nora Jaber Nora Jaber is a Lecturer in Law in the Globalised Muslim World, based at the School of Law and the Al-Waleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World. Dr Mira Al Hussein Mira is the Alwaleed Centre's Project and Partnerships Manager with responsibility for brokering and developing the Centre's national and international research, teaching, and outreach partnerships. Leveraging the University of Edinburgh critical mass of expertise across subject areas, the network seeks to broaden conventional understandings of the Gulf, moving beyond traditional categories like oil and security, instead exploring the region as a dynamic space of transformation—both situated in its unique regional context and deeply interconnected with transnational flows and currents. The netowrk encourages innovative approaches to understanding the Gulf’s complex historical legacies, its rapidly evolving legal landscapes, and its role in shaping modern global flows of people, ideas, and resources. By incorporating decolonial, transnational, feminist, environmental, and postcolonial perspectives among others, the cluster seeks to challenge traditional paradigms and revolutionise the study and engagement with the Gulf, uncovering the region’s complexities beyond entrenched narratives.Emphasising interdisciplinary intersections, the cluster will serve as a community-building space that fosters cutting-edge theoretical and applied research and dialogue reflecting the Gulf region’s richness, diversity, and transformative global significance. This article was published on 2025-03-19
