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Events

35th Annual Gulf Conference

Temporality and Aesthetics in the Arabian Peninsula

Programme now available


Event details

Centre for Gulf Studies 

35th Exeter Gulf Conference 

Temporality and Aesthetics in the Arabian Peninsula 

7- 8 July 2025 

Monday 7th July 2025

9:00 – 9:30, Conference Registration, Tea & Coffee

9:30 – 9:45, Welcome Address (Laleh Khalili, University of Exeter)

9:45 – 11: 15, Aesthetic and Symbolic Urban Transformation

  • Roberto Fabbri, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi
    Transient / Concrete
  • Noor Hussain, Georgetown University in Qatar
    Between Palace and Petals: The National Museum of Qatar and the Architecture of Nationhood

11:15 – 11:45, Coffee Break

11:45 – 13:00, Temporalities of Oil

  • Ritika Lal, New York University
    Specters on the Horizon: Reading Changing Saudi Landscapes through Cities of Salt (1984) and The Others (2009)
  • Samuel Martin, University of Cambridge
    De-Fossilizing Narrative: Sedimented Histories in Raja Alem’s Tawq al-Hamam (2010)

13:00 – 14:00, Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:15, Visuality and Media Scapes

  • Ali Alsayegh, independent researcher
    The Aesthetics of Sadri Hybrid Media: Ideological Maintenance in a Time of Political Pause
  • Zoe Hurley, American University of Sharjah
    Temporality and Aesthetics of Gulf Social Media Scapes: A Dubai Case Study

15:15 – 15:45, Coffee Break

15:45– 17:00, Tropes and Imaginaries in Cultural Production

  • Chandni Sai Ganesh, University of Sussex
    Authenticity and the Mallu Shawarma: An Inquiry into the Lived Experiences of Keralites in the Gulf
  • Leili Sreberny-Mohammadi, London School of Economics
    Critical Difference, Critical Distance: Iranian Art in the Emirati Art World

Tuesday 8th July 2025

9:00 – 9:30, Tea & Coffee

9:30 – 11:00, Transience and Homemaking in Migrants’ Lives

  • Nadeen Dakkak, University of Exeter
    Oil Modernity, Migration and Women’s Time in the Desert Writings of Hanan Al-Shaykh
  • Saad Latif, New York University
    My Mother: Community, Belonging, and the Aesthetics of Migrant Life during Saudi Arabia’s Oil Boom
  • Neha Vora, American University of Sharjah
    Multispecies Ecologies of Homemaking in the UAE

11:00 – 11:30, Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:45, Image-Making Politics and Aesthetic Regimes

  • Maryam Almutawa, University of Exeter
    The Influence of Western Museum Paradigms on the Heritage Production in Qatar
  • Ada Petiwala, American University of Beirut
    A Millennial Moment: Bhakti Visuality and Gulf Aesthetics at the BAPS Hindu Mandir, Abu Dhabi

12:45 – 14:00, Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:30, Tribute to Professor Sulayman Khalaf (1946-2023) 

Location:

Reed Hall