School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

PhD Title

Afterlives of Colonial Rule: Labour, National Movements, and the Production of Political Immobility in Qatar

Research Summary

This research examines how British colonial rule and its afterlives structured political immobility in Qatar. It centres on the repressive state apparatus as a colonial product, tracing how security institutions, surveillance practices, and discursive regimes were extended and adapted by the post-independence state to suppress oppositional politics. Focusing on the 1963 popular uprising, the project foregrounds the organising politics of labour and national movements and the intellectual currents that resisted colonial domination and emerging absolutist rule. Drawing on ethnographic work with former activists and counter-archival remains, it challenges the framing of the period as politically quiescent by approaching the region as a site of resistance rather than a passive recipient of colonial modernity.

Publications (selected)

- AlHajri, M. (Forthcoming). 'Theorising the State in the Arabian Peninsula.' In Al-Affandi, A., Anderson, S. & Salloukh, B. (Eds.), The State After the Arab Spring. Qatar: The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

- AlHajri, M. & ElKurd, D. (2022). Palestine Activism in the World Cup. Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Available online: https://agsiw.org/palestine-activism-in-the-world-cup/

- AlHajri, M. (2022). Review: Contested Modernity: Sectarianism, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Bahrain, by Omar H. al-Shehabi. Contemporary Arab Affairs, 15(1), 117–122. https://doi.org/10.1525/caa.2022.15.1.117

- AlHajri. (2021). La Mosta’ mer wla Asli [Neither Settler Nor Native]. Omran for Social Sciences, 10(38), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.31430/BANT2260

- AlHajri, M. & AlMarri, A. (2018). ‘Political Developments in the State of Qatar.’ In Alowfi, A., Al-Muftah, E., Alshehabi, O. & Bohzaa, K. (Eds.), The Constant and the Changing: Populations On the Margins of Development. Lebanon: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 67-91. (Chapter in Arabic). Available online: https://gulfpolicies.org/2019-10-30-15-32-09

- AlHajri, M. (2021). Qatar’s First Ordinary Session of the Elected Shura Council. LSE Middle East Centre. Available online: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2021/11/09/qatars-first-ordinary-session-of-the-elected-shura-council/

- AlHajri, M. (2021). [AlMoatana w AlMusharaka AlSha’abiya: AlJadal hawl entekhabat majlis elshura al Qatari] Citizenship and Public Participation: Debates Around the Qatari Shura Council Elections”. AlManshoor. Available online: https://manshoor.com/politics-and-economics/qatar-nationality-laws/

- AlHajri, M. (2019). Is Ideology a Luxury? On the Pan-Arabist movement in the GCC states. AlAraby AlJadeed. Available online: https://bit.ly/2R4JVdX

- AlHajri, M. (2018). The pro-Palestinian movement in Qatar. In Al Adab's special issue, Normalization in the Arab Gulf. Available online: https://al-adab.com/article/حَراك-نصرة-القضيّة-الفلسطينيّة-في-قطر

Conferences & Workshops (selected; organisation and participation)

- AlHajri, M., Al Kuwari, M., Al-Muftah, E., and Musaifer, S. J. (April, 2025). Critical Perspectives on Social, Political and Cultural Dynamics in the Arab Gulf States. Co-Chairs and Directors, Gulf International Forum; co-sponsored with Qatar University Gulf Research Center.
https://gulfif.org/app/gss-workshops/workshop/critical-perspectives-on-social-political-and-cultural-dynamics-in-the-arab-gulf-states-2025/

- AlHajri, M. (November, 2024). Silencing Processes as a Form of Historical Erasure: Histories of Qatar’s Social Movements. Presented as part of the roundtable “Haunted Futurities: Cases from the Arab Gulf States”, Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, November 11–16, 2024. Sponsored by the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS).

- AlHajri, M (May, 2023). ‘The walls have ears’: On Silencing Processes and Historical Erasure. Presented at the 6th Conference of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) on Producing Critical Knowledge in the Arab Region, as part of the ‘Contested Histories and Archives: Cases from the Gulf’ panel, Beirut, Lebanon. http://www.theacss.org/AlHajriM

- AlHajri, M. (July, 2022). Knowledge Production in/about the Arab World: Challenges and Opportunities. Presented at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) 2022 Conference: Exploring and Contesting the (Re)production of Coloniality in the Middle East, St. Andrews University, UK. https://www.brismes.ac.uk/files/documents/Final

- AlHajri, M. (September, 2019). Histories and Legacies: Pan-Arabism in the Gulf. Presented at the Political Movements in the GCC States Conference, Ibn Khaldun Center for Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Qatar, Qatar.

- AlHajri, M. (November, 2017). Conference to Resist Normalisation with Israel in the Gulf. Coordinating Committee Member, organised by the BDS Movement in the Gulf; sponsored by the Kuwaiti National Assembly https://bdsmovement.net/news/bds-gulf-holds-its-first-regional-anti-normalisation-conference

Awards, scholarships and grants

- Recipient of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies Sponsorship Program (2020–present).

- Institute for Global Health and Wellbeing, “Keele Global Health Seed Grant”, £2,970. AlHajri, M. & Daher-Nashif, S. ‘Between Domestic Violence and Alienation: Experiences of Arab Women Seeking Asylum in the UK.’ 2023

- Awarded the Tamim Scholarship, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, 2017-2019.

- Qatar’s Education Excellence Award, Platinum medal, Ministry of Education ($13,000), 2018.

- Academic Distinction Award in Politics and International Relations, Qatar University, May 2017.

Teaching experience

Research and Teaching Assistant, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar. Department of Political Science and International Relations, 2019-ongoing.

- POL615: Politics in the Middle East

- POL625: Politics and Society in the Arab Gulf

Tutor, University of Edinburgh, UK. Department of Sociology

• Understanding Race and Colonialism (SSPS08013) (Feb 2024-June 2024)
• Postgraduate Course: Globalization (SCIL11016) (Sep 2023-Jan 2024)
• Undergraduate Course: Globalization (SCIL10067) (Sep 2023-Jan 2024)
•  Sociology 1A: The Sociological Imagination (Sep 2021-Jan 2022)

Professional activities & collective work

Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit, member, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), 2022-ongoing.

The Association of Middle East Women Studies (AMEWS), member, 2022-ongoing.

Gulf Coalition Against Normalisation with Israel (Gulf CAN), member, 2017-ongoing.

Qatar Youth Against Normalisation with Israel (QAYON), chair of the Awareness and Research Committee, 2016-ongoing.