The Doha Experiment: Arab Kingdom, Catholic College, Jewish Teacher

by Gary Wasserman, Dick Durbin (Foreword)

Gary Wasserman’s decision to head to Qatar to teach at Georgetown sounds questionable, at best. “In the beginning,” he writes, “this sounds like a politically incorrect joke. A Jewish guy walks into a fundamentalist Arab country to teach American politics at a Catholic college.” But he quickly discovers that he has entered a world that gives him a unique perspective on the Middle East and on Muslim youth; that teaches him about the treatment of Arab women and what an education will do for them, both good and bad; shows him the occasionally amusing and often deadly serious consequences his students face simply by living in the Middle East; and finds surprising similarities between his culture and the culture of his students.

Most importantly, after eight years of teaching in Qatar he realizes he has become part of a significant, little understood movement to introduce liberal, Western values into traditional societies. Written with a sharp sense of humor, The Doha Experiment offers a unique perspective on where the region is going and clearly illustrates why Americans need to understand this clash of civilizations.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2017

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting to me because my life in Doha was on the opposite side of the city around the same time, and I can see that his experience and my experience were totally different.
I think getting a different perspective, especially from someone who lived and worked there for so many years, it really paints a fuller picture when combined with my experiences. Personal note aside, one gets to see how an idea like establishing an American university campus takes place in Doha, and the challenges that come with it. From the politics, to students, and the teachers, there's a lot that is said about what is not said. It's really a good book to get the sense of the feelings and situations that one might expect when moving to Doha for a few years.

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had its moments. A US academic teaches in a new University on Doha and documents his experiences. Sadly only 9% of the Qatar population are Qatar so there is a lot of ex pat stories, stories on setting up the Uni, stories on the bad driving of the locals, etc. So what did I learn? Qatar men are fundamentally lazy and non-motivated. The women slightly more motivated. But when you live in the a country of seemingly unlimited wealth you can be lazy and still live well. Thank goodness for the desperate poor who do the work.

[Luba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights into american education abroad with pros and cons of keeping Georgetown in a foreign land.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary Wasserman's The Doha Experiment is a look at the nitty-gritty realities of international education - a timely read in the run up to the NAFSA Conference. Wasserman was among the initial faculty appointments to Georgetown's Qatar campus. Perhaps reasonably, Wasserman has doubts as to how he will be received given his Jewish background. (Hint: better than the suggestion to place crosses outside each classroom to mirror the practice in Washington.)

In The Doha Experiment, Wasserman reflects on his time in Doha, as well as the initial founding and evolution of the school itself. Many of the anecdotes will elicit a familiar groan from those who have tried to navigate the developing world: the policeman who issues "slowing" tickets to every vehicle stuck in a traffic jam; the ubiquitous security that provides questionable value; the nightmare of navigating the roads.

Much of the book, though, is focused on the educational experience, and rightly, and offers plenty of food for thought for those of us who work in international education. The value of intercultural understanding and importance of travel can't be overstated, but Wasserman does pose important questions about the ability to overcome societal and family expectations and the ultimate value of a multicultural education if and when individuals return to the pre-set path.

Wasserman does not shy away from the difficult questions. To what extent are such campuses a form of American imperialism? How might such campuses further perpetuate social class dynamics? (He ruminates at length on the proper approach to dealing with "the help," which in Qatar consisted largely of terribly underpaid South Asians who had their passports confiscated as a condition of employment.) To what extent must a university tolerate government interference, or a government tolerate dissent by the college?

Although I personally found The Doha Experiment terribly interesting, I recognize this is one book that appeals to a particularly niche audience. If you're part of that audience, by all means, read away. If you're not, you may find greater interest between the pages of another book.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Jewish professor goes to an Arab country to teach at an American Catholic University in the Arab country. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, doesn't it?! That is what the author writes in his introduction. Except this is a fine book by the Jewish author, Gary Wasserman, who took advantage of an opportunity to teach in Qatar, a fundamentalist Muslim country, at the Georgetown University Foreign Service School, a Jesuit University in 2005.

Who knew that the United States was teaching in American Universities in foreign countries? Well, probably many people or maybe most, but it was news to me. I thought it was unusual for the emir of Qatar through mostly the efforts of his wife to want to set up an Education City in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The experiment was to invite numerous liberal universities from the States to establish specific courses of study in the hope that their students would be better able to understand the world and be successful in world dealings.

The book gives fascinating details about how this experiment is carried out and a little about the results of the students receiving a more liberal education.

One very interesting chapter for me dealt with the immigrants that make up the majority of people living in Qatar. The author tries to compare how immigrants are used and treated in Qatar as compared to the United States. I fear that had he written this book a little later, he might not have written this chapter since our feelings and treatment of immigrants in this country have changed for the worse in recent years.

I really enjoyed this book, found it well written, and totally absorbing.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for the Bender JCC Book Festival. I recommended that we NOT include it in the festival. My review is below.

--

In the early 2000's, the extremely rich emirate of Qatar decided that it wanted a branch of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in its capital, Doha. Qatar got what it wanted. Wasserman spent eight years teaching American government as Georgetown tried to build an island of equality and academic freedom in a tiny nation ruled by an emirate with multiple wives.

This is a fascinating story, but Wasserman is not the right guy to tell it. First, he is a professor not a journalist, so he doesn't ask the most basic questions. Second he's not much of an observer: he lost my confidence early when he described Qatar, a desert, as "humid." Third, he is a poor writer. One chapter, for example, is called "A brief history of a brief country". Uh. What is a "brief country"? Does he mean "small"? Does he mean "founded recently"? Does he mean "didn't last long as an independent nation"? Does he mean something else?

I dunno. He never explains. After puzzling about it for a while, I decided that maybe he meant small and just used the wrong word.

If you like that sort of experience, this is the book for you.

A future festival can feature a GOOD book on the topic. When it is published.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating concept. The book raises lots of excellent questions about how to interact with non-democratic countries, and what kinds of engagement may lead to more good than harm, or vice-versa. Although Wasserman specifically discusses an American university setting up a campus in Doha, the big issues are similar for any company, institution or government seeking to build relationships with an autocratic regime.

The last chapter even provides some interesting analysis about different ways to think about Georgetown's role in Doha, and does a good job of highlighting the different lenses - personal and political, wide and narrow - that people bring to these questions.

Overall, though, the book was rather scattered and lacked structure and coherence. The topics seemed to jump around a lot, and the text became repetitive towards the end. The author makes an impressive effort to examine his own privileged position as an American white, male, comparatively-wealthy academic, but he seems so lacking self-awareness that the resulting observations are often more cringeworthy than illuminating. I ended up wishing he would stick with the quite interesting facts and data, and academic issues he knows and understands, and stop trying to explain how Qatari women or non-citizen workers think, which is just painful to read.

[Tarun Rattan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is good memoir from an academician who saw first hand creation of an offshore campus of Georgetown University at Doha. The authors insights are valuable to understand contemporary middle east and also university education in Western world. It is fascinating to see Qatar rulers trying their best to bring enlightenment to a region marred by faith and narrow outlook to life. But ground has to be ripe for a see to sprout and jury is still out on that. But I would agree education is one of the solutions for the problems faced by middle east, we need to bring that region closer to the rest of world and concept of an education city was an admirable one.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly very good insight into Qatar, its history, and life for expats. Loved the history section and the "inside scoop" of living in Doha. I skipped through about a third of the book; some of the academia analysis bogged the book down and the writing style is a bit clunky. Overall, I was fascinated by the experience of a US History teacher in this interesting part of the world.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of an expat prof

This is a thoughtful, engaging, and informative report about a unique experiment in exporting elite American higher education to an exotic and seemingly unlikely locale.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this narrative about a very small country in the Persian Gulf to be absolutely fascinating.

I read this EARC courtesy of Edelweiss and Skyhorse publ. pub date 11/07/17

[Helen Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the way this was written. Very easy to read.

[Mike Born · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gift from dad.

Interesting book, particularly since we lived in Doha for a year (1999). Very interesting to read about the challenges and realities of life for young Arab students.

[David Henkhaus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelmed. Too much narrative; too little analysis.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author says, his experience sounds like a politically incorrect joke: "A Jewish guy walks into a Catholic school in an Arab Country..." Jesuit-run Georgetown University was persuaded to start up a campus in Qatar to create future diplomats and young careerists capable of interacting on the global stage. The regime at the time was wisely investing in higher education because they knew they had to have a Plan B for when the natural resources run out. Interesting situation they have there -- 99% of the private sector labor force is composed of expatriates. The population of the country, in fact, is hardly Qatari. Out of 2.6 million people, about 1.75 million are migrant workers. They don't have a bench deep enough to operate their own country. And they are so wealthy, the young males are unprepared and uncaring about education because they know they'll get some high paid government job where they don't have to put forth any effort. Or even show up for work. The female students tended to be the stars, and they liked going on to graduate work because it was a way to delay the inevitable pressure to get married, pop out babies, and quit thinking.
The migrant workers who do everything for the wealthy natives are treated terribly. A typical worker (mostly Southeast Asian males) would work 6 days a week, ten hours a day, for $3,945, half of which gets sent home to a family he may only see once every 3-4 years.
Things have changed in the region since the author left in 2015. "Until Donald Trump began his improv foreign policy routines, Qatar was a close American ally in the Gulf...By throwing Qatar under the bus, the Americans have upset the Gulf - the one pocket of stability in a region of great instability."
The book gives a brief history of Qatar and how it came to be what it is; the complex series of events that resulted in Georgetown establishing a campus there; what it was like to live and work in the country; the experiences and thoughts of some of the students who passed through his classes; and reflections on how the university could have done better in achieving its mission. Very interesting stuff.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This interesting book recounts the story of Georgetown University's establishing a satellite university in Doha, Qatar, its problems, successes, and the government leaders, students, and academics who made it work. The American professor writes from his perspective on his eight years (I believe) teaching in the Doha location, and his concern for his students and his university is evident to me, the reader.