Doha – QatarDebate

QatarDebate,  a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, hosted the  second meeting of the world’s first academic program “QatarDebate Fellowship” from January 4 to January 7, in the context of seeking to advance and promote academic scientific research and the diversify aspects of regional and international partnerships.

The meeting focused on presenting academic research projects after fulfilling the conditions for funding, where 11 researchers presented their projects from various scientific fields.

It is worth noting that the program is an implementation of the fellowship initiative adopted by QatarDebate through cooperation efforts regional and international partners in order to make way for academic creativity with distinguished group of academics in the fields  of innovation, conflict resolution, and elevating pressure on societies.

In summary, the Qatar Debate Fellowship is a unique opportunity for researchers, academics and entrepreneurs around the world to contribute to creating  developing knowledge in the field of debate and its intersections with various disciplines at the theoretical, scientific and procedural levels.

The program will offer a fully funded two-year research grant to complete and publish their research in affiliation with QatarDebate.

It is worth noting that the first meeting was in the United States of America on the sidelines of the American Universities Championship for Arabic Debates.

Dr. Hayat Abdullah Marafi

 Dr. Hayat Abdullah Marafi, Executive Director of QatarDebate, said:  “The fellowship program came a decade after the establishment of the Center and as part of our relentless endeavor to establish academic research platforms for debates within various disciplines  and   to unleash researchers and innovators to employ and publish their work after we found that regional and global communication in this field is limited.  

Dr. Hayat continued: “We seek to be part of the movement that promotes publishing academic research to create a supportive environment for inspiration and motivation with providing opportunities for others to join wider scientific networks.

To extend the fields of knowledge in building on solid scientific research foundation centered around debate with a prolific product that enriches Arab and Western libraries and ensures cultural and cognitive sustainable resources for future generations.

In this regard, Dr. Hayat Abdullah Marafi, Executive Director of QatarDebate, said that scientific research and research studies are one of the most important pillars of progress and advancement in the realm of institution with a scientific vision to attain their goal of global reach, and thus the goal of QatarDebate, which adopted the methodology of scientific cooperation to build partnerships on solid foundations characterized by science and logic. This event brought together a group of distinguished participants with exceptional skills in the field of debate that keep pace with reason and logic. Therefore, QatarDebate has adopted the scientific approach to make the most of the scientific research that will give addedvalues to the Center’s activities and promote dialogue through exchanging of  ideas.

Dr. Abdul Gabbar Al-Sharafi

Fellows presented their distinctive topics in various subtopics stemming from debate. One fellow Dr. Abdul Gabbar Al-Sharafi is working on “Rhetorical Strategies in Arabic Debating and Argumentation: A Corpus-based Approach” Dr. Abdul Gabbar said  : “The  research project aims  to build a digital blog from a large number of Arab debates organized by QatarDebate over the past years and to prepare it digitally for analysis and investigation of rhetorical and argumentative strategies used by debaters to convince judges and audiences. In addition, the importance of the research is  highlighted as it deals with the cultural and linguistic dimensions, as it uses contemporary debate material for the first time in the methodology of the digital code and computer-processing to identify the strategies used and classify them according to the classifications followed in the relevant debate literature. In addition, the research will conclude the educational findings and recommendations related to the aspects of debate training and their applicability and integration into our educational curricula.

Dr. Fadoua El Heziti’s

Another fellow Dr. Fadoua El Heziti’s research topic is: Dialogic Practices in the Andalusian Aljamiado Legacy: The Argumentative Strategies and Reasoning Procedures. An applied and comparative Study. Dr Fadoua states: The Andalusian heritage was written in a foreign language, Arabic letters, but Spanish in their expressions, and the content of the manuscripts is Islamic, and because of the religious, social and cultural differences, the dialogue was presented in a controversial manner. She continued: “It is necessary to link  the foreign heritage with debate today, which has reached an important rank through the efforts of QatarDebate and reached many countries, and perhaps it is useful to emphasize the importance of deriving from the Islamic heritage to develop the mechanisms of debate,  not  by presenting it as contents, but by working to find mechanisms of referencing and argumentation

Rashed Al Rumaihi – Qatar Debate Fellowship

Rashid Al-Rumaihi, a student in the United Kingdom majoring in anthropology and international development, explained: “The idea of this research stems from his personal experience being a debater for more than 6 years, and as a result, I present a study on the personal experiences of debaters and the institutional success achieved by QatarDebate in terms of its uniqueness with certain characteristics that refine the personality.  We lack the study of cultural scenes in the Arab world and this is why its vital to research within this sphere of academia.”

Engineer Ali Al Zawqari

Engineer Ali Al Zawqari is researching the Classification of Compelling Arabic Arguments using AI Techniques. Eng. Ali Al-Zawqari explained the accuracy of artificial intelligence in analyzing arguments: “The level of accuracy can reach 90% It depends on the subject of the research system that it determines. The question remains whether it simulates the level of the human being. Eng Ali continues: “It cannot reach the level of humans, but it takes the role of assistant only, for several reasons, including that the language has many vague details and carries many meanings.

Eng. Mohammed Baaoum

Eng. Mohammed Baaoum’s research is: Analyzing Debate Related to COVID-19 Vaccination among Arab Region Twitter Users. In turn, Eng. Mohammed Baaoum said: One of the most prominent challenges faced by the research from a technical point of view is that programming that deals with Arabic content is not served compared to English content, and of course we are  in dire need to program new programs in Arabic that support electronic platforms and meet the needs of students and researchers characterized by ease and scalability. Moreover, I aspire to enter debates in the scientific and engineering fields through the Qatar Debate fellowship by benefiting from the experiences of colleagues, their research projects and their expertise, which we have benefited from a lot.

Mr. Abdussamet KOCAK is researching: The Manuscripts of the Science of Debate in Turkish Libraries: Cataloging and Study.

Mr. Muhammed Komath

Mr. Muhammed Komath is looking into: Refutations Against the Cause in Analogical Reasoning: Theories and Praxis in Islamic Intellectual Tradition. Mr Komath confirms: It is obvious  that debate and controversy are a vital element in the Islamic intellectual heritage and applied in various fields, and what struck me was that there is a wealth of discussions about the cause and its deep intrigues that have not yet been discovered. Of course, through the project, I am looking for techniques for objecting to standard reasoning in Islamic dialectics, modern logic, and developing modern argumentative theories that we benefit from in legal, political and other arguments.

Mr. Moez Dhahri

Mr. Moez Dhahri write about The Impact of the Debate Culture on the Political Scene in North Africa post-2011: Hope for the Future? Mr Dhari explains: This research is important in terms of the strategic geographical location on the outskirts of Europe as a gateway to the continent of Africa and as part of the Arab and Islamic world to a region that has known in its history major factors that have shaped its identities and the ground of its relations among itself and with its surroundings.

Mr. Mohammad Elokda

Mr. Mohammad Elokda is researching: Centralized Information Warfare and Decentralized Debating Platforms: The Case of Wikipedia at the Crucible of Socio-political Debate. He adds: It is established that the project is to transfer people from the chaos of ignorance of information to the responsibility of knowledge, by searching for some information  in the Wikipedia platform compared to Arab research centers as unified institutions and central institutions, since Wikipedia is an open source of knowledge that does not dominate the research agenda. In addition, the research may be specialized in disinformation, and from this point of view, it is my turn to derive how Western research and strategic institutions deal with Wikipedia in terms of disinformation by searching for sound evidence.

Ms. Delaney Hurley

Ms. Delaney Hurley researching the topic of Comparing Gender Differences between Kuwaiti/Jordanian and American Debate Programs. Ms. Hurley said: “This study is not only a qualitative study in terms of gender (male or female) or about women and their educational experience compared to men. It is about the kind of educational curricula that teachers and academics in educational institutions can benefit from to improve the perception of gender justice in the world at large.  As a result, the study affects different fields of study and education.