Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) recently hosted its fourth annual Liberal Arts International Conference (LAIC) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Centre in Education City.
This year’s conference featured 70 papers from institutions in 15 countries across six continents, and included 40 speakers from Qatar.
The Liberal Arts Programme at Texas A&M at Qatar hosts the conference each year to explore a wide variety of regional and global topics from a multidisciplinary perspective.
The three-day conference, “Crossing Disciplines, Crossing Borders”, featured lectures, trips to Souq Waqif and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and seven parallel sessions consisting of 20 panel discussions.
Collaborations from past conferences have led to several academic articles and two books.
The event served as an opportunity in Qatar for scholars in the social sciences, arts and humanities to engage with colleagues from around the world and stimulate research and learning efforts.
Conference speaker and attendee Dr Amy Hodges from the Writing Centre at MIT/Singapore University of Technology and Design said, “I enjoyed the LAIC, not only because of the connections I made with people in my own field, but also because of the diversity of thoughtful perspectives from people in different fields that made me think about my own research in a new way.”
There were two keynote speakers this year: Professor Daniel Martin Varisco, research professor in social science at Qatar University, and Professor Cheryl Glenn, liberal arts research professor of English and women’s studies director at Penn State University.
Varisco’s talk, “The Social Relevance of Sustainability: The Future of Post-traditional Culture in the Gulf”, examined the effects of rapid modernity in the Arabian Gulf.
Varisco tracked Qatar’s ascension and evolution from seafarers inhabiting scattered Bedouin outposts to one of the richest countries in the world in a short period of time and examined what effects this may have had on society.  
In the second keynote address, Glenn presented the lecture, “What is happening to the Liberal Arts?”, explaining how the liberal arts are under-appreciated - if not under siege.
She also noted that liberal arts fields infuse STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education by promoting critical thinking, imagination, logical analysis and empathic understanding of human experiences, thereby creating global citizens.
Dr Troy Bickham, assistant dean for academic and student services and professor of history at Tamuq, said: “Our graduates have diverse skills that enable them to provide creative solutions to future problems we cannot yet even imagine. The liberal arts are essential in this regard, because they develop students’ communication, writing and critical-thinking skills.”