2018
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
Founder
Barjeel Art Foundation
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a United Arab Emirates-based columnist and researcher on social, political and cultural affairs in the Arab Gulf States. Sultan rose in prominence during the Arab Spring when his tweets became a major news source, rivaling news networks at the time, until TIME magazine listed him in the “140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2011.” In 2018 Sultan ranked 19th on the "Arabic Thought Leader Index" by Swiss think tank Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.
Sultan was an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow from 2014-2016, and in the spring of 2017 he was a practitioner in residence at the Hagop Kevorkian Center of Near East Studies at New York University, where he offered a special course on Politics of Middle Eastern Art. Sultan is currently conducting research for a book that documents the modern architecture of the city of Sharjah in the UAE.
The 2018 World Fellows
A South Korean army major, a Russian opposition party politician, and an Iraqi historian who bore witness to ISIS atrocities in Mosul are among the 16 men and women who have been selected as 2018 World Fellows. This cohort brings the total number of World Fellows since the program’s start in 2002 to 327 Fellows, representing 90 countries. This year marks the 17th cohort of World Fellows. “I am honored to announce the 2018 World Fellows,” said Emma Sky, director of the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program. “The talent, bravery, and resilience of these individuals is quite extraordinary. They are amazing role models for Yale students.” The World Fellows...Read More
Podcast Ep: 21 - 2018 World Fellow Sultan Al Qassemi
Sultan Al Qassemi, art collector and columnist, discusses his childhood in the United Arab Emirates, why the Arab Spring failed to bring about new political orders based on rights and justice, and his hopes for the Middle East.