Doha: The 12th annual Gulf Studies Forum, organized by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), concluded on Sunday.
According to Qatar News Agency, this year's forum was structured around two parallel tracks: the first examined "Arab Gulf States and Transformations in the Arab Mashreq," while the second addressed "Social Media in the Gulf: The Construction of the Political and Civil Sphere."
In a statement, the ACRPS detailed that the forum's first track sessions on day two discussed topics including the transformations of the Arab Mashreq and their impact on energy and economic dynamics, the reshaping of Gulf agency, as well as the Gulf Arab states and the transformations of the Mashreq.
As for the forum's second track on day two, discussions addressed topics such as social media literacy, political interactions as reflected through social media, social media as a political act, the new functions generated by social media, social media between legal framing and regulatory oversight, and the ontology of social media.
The ACRPS noted that the forum included numerous research papers presented by Gulf, Arab, and international researchers, totaling around 40 research papers distributed across 16 sessions. In this context, Head of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit at the ACRPS Haider Saeed outlined some key observations at the conclusion of the forum, in addition to future steps for publishing the forum's outputs.