Rubaiyat, DIGS invite papers for water conference

Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Rubaiyat Qatar have announced the call for papers for the upcoming ‘Water Ways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics’ conference, set to be held from 18 to 20 February 2024.

The conference is an open platform, bringing into focus the current state of research and artistic interventions in relation to water. It aims to create critical and dialogic discourses between the various thinkers, artists and scholars who address different phenomena through water.

Born out of a partnership between Rubaiyat Qatar, Qatar’s first visual arts festival, and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DGIS), Water Ways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics will be a three-day conference designed to serve as a cross-sectional platform, bringing together experts and enthusiasts from various fields, ultimately strengthening the communities of researchers and artists dedicated to the study and artistic interpretation of water.

The conference presents a unique opportunity not only to contribute to the shaping of Qatar’s first quadrennial event but also to engage with an interdisciplinary space that revolves around the most vital, unifying, and divisive resource: water.

The event will emphasise the intersection between the epistemic and aesthetic aspects of water, highlighting its significance in our contemporary world and beyond. The Call for Papers is open to scholars, researchers, writers, artists, designers, filmmakers, and cultural practitioners who are passionate about water studies and artistic projects. Participants are invited to submit abstracts of 250-500 words.

Rubaiyat Qatar invites practitioners from the social sciences, the humanities as well as the arts to participate by presenting their projects to the local and international academic and art communities in Qatar. The topics of the presentations may be one of the following, but may also be any other topic approached through the conceptualisation of water:

1. Philosophical approaches to re-think concepts and theories related to water.

2. Historical and geographical studies of water as a frame of reference.

3. (Post) colonial studies of water.

4. The Global South and water epistemologies and aesthetics.

5. Ethics and aesthetics of water in the context of labour and forced immigration.

6. The politics of water.

For further information and submission guidelines, please visit https://qm.org.qa/en/‘Water Ways: Epistemologies and Aesthetics Conference 2024’ will give the participants an opportunity to be a part of a profound conversation about water and its influence on the world