DOHA: Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar’s (VCUQ) research project ‘Orality to Image: Traditional Qatari Narratives and Visual Media’, funded through the Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) grant by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) came in third at QNRF’s fifth UREP Competition.
The project, awarded the grant in 2011, aimed to preserve and re-present traditional Qatari culture by adapting cross-generational oral narratives (folk tales) into text and graphic form.
It was inter-institutionally collaborative, involving faculty and students from Qatar University (QU) and VCUQ, and inter-disciplinary, encompassing humanities and the arts.
“We’re incredibly honoured to receive this recognition. The book, The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf, that resulted from this project, represents the hard work and creativity of the entire VCU-Q community. It also highlights the importance of the arts and design, and its ability to make a substantial contribution to the development of research in Qatar and beyond,” said Paine Gibbons, Professor of English and Assistant Director of Liberal Arts and Sciences, on receiving the award.
The tales were collected, transcribed into Arabic and translated in English by QU students. The tales were then illustrated by VCU-Q students. The illustrated stories were collected in a 260-page book for readers interested in Qatari culture in general and young adult readers in particular.
The book was published by Berkshire Academic Press, and released earlier this year. UREP had 88 projects from post-secondary institutions across Qatar, nominated for the contest, and ‘Orality to Image’ was among the five projects selected to be presented to a panel of judges at the QNRF Event Hall in Tornado Tower. VCU-Q students Al Hussein Wanas and Felicity Ulmer presented the project at the contest.
The Peninsula
