'Waterways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics' Conference Commences

Qatar Museums at DI launched the International Conference 'Waterways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics'

In cooperation with Qatar Museums and Rubaiyat Qatar: Qatar's first visual arts festival, the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) launched the International Conference 'Waterways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics' on Sunday.

The 3-day conference brings together 37 researchers from several Arab and foreign countries to hold a profound conversation about water and its influence on the world and to look at water from various angles and disciplines, including: political science, economics, geography, sociology, anthropology, comparative literature, history, philosophy, cultural studies, and creative arts.

In his opening speech, DI President Dr Abdelwahab El Affendi thanked Qatar Museums and Rubaiyat Qatar for this cooperation and stressed the Conference's significance in bringing together researchers interested in the topic.

El Affendi discussed in some detail the importance of water as a source of life and approached water politically and economically, by referring to the Israeli occupation forces' genocidal policies and their blockade of Gaza, in addition to current threats facing international trade shipping routes.

In turn, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at DI Dr. Amal Ghazal pointed to the increase in discussions about water-related studies recently, which helps raise awareness of the importance of water to human life, adding that discussing water paths is not limited to oceans and seas, rather it also includes rivers, small lakes, bodies of water, and any other path through which water passes, pointing to the importance of knowledge production in this context.

Rubaiyat Qatar acting director Sheikha Alanood Al-Thani said that this conference set her on a profound journey of exploration and discovery centered around one of the most important elements of life: water, noting that throughout history water has been a subject of contemplation in both the artistic and intellectual fields, attracting the attention of scholars, artists, and thinkers in various disciplines.

For their part, Rubaiyat Qatar artistic co-directors Mark Rohan Rappolt and Tom Eccles delivered their opening speeches introducing Rubaiyat Qatar's work and touching on the conference and the papers to be presented in it.

Source: QNA