Maryam Al Thani, Section Head of Reference and Information Services at Qatar University Library
Doha: Qatar University (QU), with the College of Arts and Sciences, has formed a joint committee to collect the stories of the Qatari people and their daily lives during the 1950s and 1960s. The importance of this initiative led by QU is due to the inadequate written records about this period in Qatar’s history.
Therefore, QU will collect and document the stories of the Qatari people to preserve an aspect of the national heritage to benefit future generations, students, and researchers from all around the world interested in studying and researching Qatar and the Gulf region in general. For concerned members of the Qatari community, this project represents a rare opportunity to narrate and document their life experiences during the 50s and 60s. Based on the above, this committee will interview Qataris or those who lived around that period in the country.
Maryam Al Thani, Section Head of Reference and Information Services at Qatar University Library, said, “We will start this campaign to collect the stories of the Qatari people and individuals who lived in Qatar during the aforementioned period. These stories can be sent to the e-mail: [email protected].”
“The committee respects the privacy of individuals if they wish to share some stories without mentioning their names. Among the topics that can be written about are, work in the oil industry, changes in the family system, bureaucracy, school systems, and any other topics in the same context,” she added.
Peter Polak-Springer, Associate Professor of European Humanities at College of Arts and Sciences
Peter Polak-Springer, Associate Professor of European Humanities at College of Arts and Sciences, said, “The Qatar University Library is building an archive that documents the social history and intangible cultural heritage of the early modernization era in the State of Qatar in the 1950s and 1960s by collecting realistic experiences and stories of those who lived through that period. The importance of documenting the social history and monitoring the living reality during that era stems from the fact that it is a period during which the Qatari society witnessed social and cultural transformations that represented a turning point in the lives of those who were contemporary of that period.”
“They have lived through the changes and transformations that affected them and were affected by them. Therefore, we urge the people and residents of Qatar who were contemporaries of that era to convey to us their experiences and stories, as they deserve to be an integral part of the history and heritage of our country,” he added.
