Events at Reed

May 1, 2014

Lecture: Andrew M. Gardner, "Segregation, Urban Form, and the Transnational Proletariat in Doha, Qatar"

4:30 p.m., Psychology 105

Over the last few decades, the states of the Arabian Peninsula have emerged as key destinations in the transnational migration of labor. For 15 years, anthropologist and ethnographer Andrew Gardner has been exploring the lives and experiences of these labor migrants, various diasporic populations in the region, the Arabian societies that host these migrants, and the sending communities from which these migrants depart. In this presentation, he traces the arc of his ethnographic work, summarizes key findings, and discusses his positionality as a researcher-activist amidst an issue of sudden global scrutiny. The presentation coalesces with a discussion of his newest work, in which he explores the intersection between labor migration, nationalism, and urban form in the astonishing global cities of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Andrew Gardner is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. He is a sociocultural anthropologist and ethnographer by training. For the past decade, Andrew’s fieldwork has been focused on the places, peoples and societies who interact in the petroleum-rich states of the Arabian peninsula. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar. Between 2008 and 2010, he also served as an assistant professor of anthropology at Qatar University. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, he is the author of City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain (Cornell, 2010), which explores the experiences of Indian transnational migrants in Bahrain and the society that hosts them, and more recently, the coeditor of Constructing Qatar: Migrant Narratives from the Margins of the Global System (2012), an eBook that illuminates the experiences and perspectives of labor migrants in Qatar. In collaboration with photographer Kristin Giordano, he recently installed the multiform exhibition Skyscrapers and Shadows: Labor and Migration in Doha, Qatar at NYUAD, and his current scholarly pursuits explore the nexus between migration, urbanization, and urban planning in Doha.

Add to Calendar 05/01/2014 16:30 05/02/2014 00:00 America/Los_Angeles Lecture: Andrew M. Gardner, "Segregation, Urban Form, and the Transnational Proletariat in Doha, Qatar" View details at http://www.reed.edu/events/posts/2013-14/lecture-andrew-gardner.html Reed College Reed College Events events@reed.edu true MM/DD/YYYY