Doha, Qatar: The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ), in collaboration with the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), will host a public panel on October 22, 2025, to explore how digital technologies and artificial intelligence are reshaping historical inquiry and the practice of public history across global contexts.
Titled “Digital Public History in a Global Context,” the panel will feature C²DH faculty Thomas Cauvin and Frédéric Clavert, and Mutanu Kyany’a, head of programs and outreach at African Digital Heritage, in a conversation moderated by Dahlia El Zein, assistant professor of history at Northwestern Qatar. Together, they will examine how emerging digital tools are transforming the ways historians and communities engage with the past, while addressing the opportunities and challenges of developing inclusive and accessible forms of public history worldwide.
“Digital technologies and AI are changing not just how historians work, but how societies everywhere connect with the past,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “This panel gives us a chance to think about those changes together, across different regions and traditions. It also shows the real impact of our partnership with C²DH, bringing scholars and students together for scholarly dialogue, exchanging perspectives, and building new ways of doing public history that are inclusive and globally relevant.”
This panel is part of an ongoing, dynamic partnership between the Institute and C²DH, which aims to advance academic approaches to public history and digital perspectives and methodologies from the Global South. It features joint seminars that engage scholars, practitioners, and student researchers in the Global Undergraduate Fellowship program at the Institute, as well as from the University of Luxembourg.
It also supports visiting faculty and fellowships between both universities, allowing scholars to contribute their expertise and engage with the unique research environments at both institutions.
While at Northwestern Qatar, the Institute will also host a workshop that brings together visiting C²DH faculty with #IAS_NUQ Global Postdoctoral Scholars and Global Undergraduate Fellows. Designed as a forum for scholarly exchange, the workshop will allow participants to share research interests, explore points of convergence, and identify opportunities for collaboration in the evolving field of digital public history. The workshop is facilitated by Myriam Dalal, research and outreach consultant for the Public History program at the University of Luxembourg.
“This partnership offers new opportunities for our students, staff, and researchers to make knowledge more accessible and participatory. Working with #IAS_NUQ means contributing to exciting discussions on history, digital scholarship, and the diverse ways humanities are practiced in a global context,” said Thomas Cauvin, professor of public history at the University of Luxembourg and head of the Public History Department at C²DH.
This initiative expands #IAS_NUQ’s contributions to Global South scholarship, further advancing its mission to explore the histories, cultures, and media of the Global South through comparative and interdisciplinary approaches, amplifying voices and narratives that resonate across regions.
