DOHA, Qatar, February 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
In partnership with Harvard Law School's Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP), Hamad bin Khalifa University, a member of Qatar Foundation, hosted the annual IGLP Workshop in Doha, for the second consecutive year, from January 3 to 11, 2014. The Workshop promoted new perspectives and innovative approaches to issues of global law, economic policy, and social justice.
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The Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) at Harvard Law School brought over 100 doctoral, post-doctoral scholars, and junior faculty together with a core group of senior IGLP faculty from around the world for a unique series of lectures and intensive interdisciplinary debates. Young teachers and scholars had the opportunity to share their ideas with senior scholars from many leading universities, strengthening higher education worldwide.
Participants reviewed current scholarly developments, reconsidered canonical texts, and networked with colleagues from across the world. Intensive writing workshops offered participants the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on their own research from their peers and more senior colleagues in small group settings.
Commenting on the Workshop, Dr. Dennis Roberts, Associate Provost for Evaluation & Assessment of HBKU said: "Hosting the Harvard IGLP Workshop in Qatar provided an opportunity to introduce legal and public policy scholars from around the world to the important capacity building work of Qatar Foundation and Hamad bin Khalifa University.We were overwhelmed with appreciation as participants left Qatar after their intense nine-day experience."
The 2014 Workshop also focused on comparative law as a constituent part of global policy and legal practice, on the potential to renew the Arab tradition of law and governance, and on the modern significance of the Islamic legal tradition.
IGLP Faculty Director David Kennedy said, "Harvard'sIGLP Workshop in Dohais a powerful experience for young scholars, bringing them into sustained conversation with one another and with leading faculty from around the world. Convening the Workshop inQatarhas opened the door for participants from the MENA region and encouraged discussions not available in the conventional academic centers ofthe North Atlantic.Everyone wasgrateful for the opportunity to learn from and with colleagues from Qatar.We are grateful to the Qatar Foundation and Hamid bin Khalifa University for their hospitality and for their support of thisimportantinitiative."
In addition to participating in the workshop stream lectures and discussions, young policy professionals, who are neither academics nor scholars but showed an interest in sharing their ideas with global peers, had the opportunity to explore policy and governance processes and challenges with select workshop faculty during afternoon discussion groups as part of the "Young Policy Professionals" (YPP) program.
Dr. Gleider Hernandez, a Canadian law lecturer at Durham University and a first-time participant, said, "It's been an eye-opening experience to see that diversity of perspective, to see how we can still come together to share methods and techniques, challenge each other at all levels and engage in a spirit of honest and constructive criticism." With respect to the benefit of HBKU hosting the IGLP Workshop in Doha, he said, "We should step out of our comfort zone if we are genuinely going to build any sort of sense of what law and policy can do on a global scale. It's good to take us to alternative spaces that aren't part of the mainstream discourses."
"This event is a great experience both intellectually and socially," says Ramzan Al-Naimy, a first-year participant from Bahrain. "It encourages participants to think about global challenges, especially in this region where we are focused on projects to develop the economy into a knowledge-based economy. It is also a great social opportunity to meet other young scholars who share the same concerns as me. I am so thankful to Qatar Foundation, Hamad bin Khalifa University and Harvard for putting this great workshop together."
This is the second year that The IGLP Workshop was held outside of North America or Europe.
ABOUT Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU):
Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, is an emerging research university building upon unique collaborations with local and international partners. Located in Education City, HBKU seeks to provide unparalleled opportunities for scholarship, teaching, discovery, and learning for all of its faculty and students through an array of interdisciplinary graduate programs.
HBKU's partners are Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, HEC Paris in Qatar, and University College London Qatar.
ABOUT IGLP
The Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School is a collaborative faculty effort to nurture innovative approaches to global policy in the face of a legal and institutional architecture manifestly ill-equipped to address our most urgent global challenges. We aim to provide a platform at Harvard for new thinking about international legal and institutional arrangements, with particular emphasis on ideas and issues of importance to the global South.
For more information on IGLP, please visit http://www.harvardiglp.org/.
