Marwan M. Kraidy has been named dean and CEO of Northwestern University-Qatar (NU-Q).
Kraidy, who serves as associate dean for administration and professor of global communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), will start as dean of NU-Q July 1. He will hold a named chair and a tenured appointment.
Kraidy, who also serves as Annenberg’s associate dean for graduate studies, is the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics & Culture at UPenn. In 2013 he founded the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC), a leading institute for advanced study that hosts faculty, postdoctoral and undergraduate fellows, and publishes cutting-edge research. As CARGC’s director, Kraidy led multidisciplinary teams of scholars in research on enduring issues in global media, politics and culture.
A native of Lebanon and an authority on Arab media, Kraidy has for more than two decades taught and published award-winning research about the Middle East. He has a deep knowledge of the region and is fluent in Arabic and other languages.
“I am honored and delighted to be the next NU-Q dean.” Kraidy said. “The future of education is global, interdisciplinary, and digital. With its formidable faculty, talented staff and bright students, NU-Q is uniquely positioned to shape that future. I look forward to leading this special community to new heights, and deepen our impact on Northwestern and the world.”
He said that as NU-Q moves confidently into its second decade, it is poised to be an important catalyst in global education.
“As a campus of a preeminent U.S. university embedded in a region with impressive and fast-changing media industries and educational institutions, NU-Q can play a transformative role in shaping the circulation of knowledge between Africa, Asia and the Americas, and in deepening mutual understanding between the United States and the Arab and Islamic worlds,” Kraidy added.
Kraidy has published a dozen books and edited volumes, penned 130 essays and chapters, won more than 50 awards for teaching and scholarship and delivered keynote addresses and named lectures worldwide. He has advised universities, non-profits, museums, foundations and governments. The recipient of multiple competitive fellowships, he was notably the first communication scholar to receive the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2016.
A vocal advocate for the arts and humanities, Kraidy was a member of the International Advisory Board of the National Museum of Qatar and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Council of Learned Societies in New York.
He began at UPenn in 2007 as an associate professor and rose through the ranks. Prior to joining UPenn, he was an assistant professor of international relations at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C., where he founded the Arab Media in Public Life project. He began his career at the University of North Dakota, where he served as director of graduate studies. Since then he has held the Edward Said Chair in American Studies at American University of Beirut, the Dupront Chair at the CELSA-Sorbonne, the Bonnier Professorship at Stockholm University, and other visiting appointments at universities in China, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and the U.S.
Kraidy holds a Ph.D. in mass communication from Ohio University, where he also earned his master’s degree. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communication arts from Notre-Dame University in Louaizé, Lebanon, and his Lebanese Baccalaureate in humanities at Saint Joseph College in Antoura, Lebanon. He also holds a French Baccalaureate in Letters and Languages.
