Doha: The School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, in partnership with the Asian Association of World Historians (AAWH), inaugurated on Saturday 25 October 2025 the 6th Congress under the title "The Gulf and the World".
The two-day event is being held with the participation of an elite group of scholars and historians from Asia, Europe, the United States and the Arab region.
It comes as a continuation of the Association's previous conferences held in Osaka (2009), Seoul (2012), Singapore (2015), Osaka (2018) and New Delhi (2022), thereby affirming the Association's leading role in advancing research and education in world history with a special focus on Asia and enhancing south, south scholarly dialogue.
The conference program includes four keynote lectures and thirteen academic sessions, in which approximately fifty research presentations will be delivered in a hybrid format combining in-person attendance and online participation.
President of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies Dr. Abdelwahab El Effendi affirmed that holding this conference for the first time in the region represents an important step toward understanding the interconnection between Asia and global history.
El Effendi said that Asia is not just a part of the world; one could say it is the world itself, as the great beginnings of humanity originated here.
He added that the fragmentation of identities, Arab, Indian, Japanese, and others, has led each to view itself as an independent world, and this is the essence of the challenge to the historical unity, stressing the need to value our shared history and to restore awareness of the united destiny of the peoples of Asia and Africa.
For her part, President of the Asian Association of World Historians Sucheta Mahajan said: "Holding the 6th Congress of the AAWH at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies marks a milestone in the Association's trajectory, which has sought since its establishment to institutionalise studies in global and transcontinental history in Asia." After noting that East Asian cities had hosted the event for years, she continued: "Its convening in Doha, in West Asia, embodies the Association's inclusive Asian dimension and strengthens the scholarly dialogue from the Gulf to the eastern part of the continent."
Mahajan added: "We have received a wide range of papers that transcend the traditional conference themes, to highlight world history from a new Gulf and Asian perspective. The hybrid format of the conference also enables wide global participation, making it truly an international event anchored in a solid Asian base."
Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute Amal Ghazal said: "The congress brings together a distinguished group of researchers and historians from Asia, Europe, the United States and the Arab region to discuss historical issues from a perspective that places the Gulf region and the Asian continent at the heart of global economic, cultural and political transformations."
She added: "This event is the fruit of an academic collaboration between the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and the Asian Association of World Historians, aimed at enhancing south-south academic dialogue and expanding the horizons of comparative historical research. The congress constitutes a platform for dialogue among historians from diverse backgrounds and historiographical schools and is an opportunity to re-centre the history of the Arabian Gulf within the context of Asian and world history."
Following the opening session, parallel sessions began. Led by Issam Nassar (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies), a session titled "The Gulf in the World" convened, during which papers on national identity, Gulf diplomacy and the comparative history of regional relations were discussed. At the same time, two other sessions were held: "Late-20th Century Transformations", chaired by Shigeru Akita (Osaka University, Japan), and "Techniques of the Past and Future", chaired by Hong Liu (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore); these addressed energy transformations, political economy and technologies in modern and contemporary history.
