Mapping Migration Memories

The Mapping Migration Memories research team of four students with mentorship from experts in the field were able to connect and excavate traces of evidence, documentation and records of the biannual Qatari migrations. 

The project is inspired by three books in particular, the 1950s Danish Expedition, Abdullah Ibn Radda’s Sha’irat min al-badiya (a 1969 anthology of Bedouin women poetry), and Gulf Women, by Amira Sonbol. While we early on decided to focus our research —when and where possible — on the oral histories of Qatari women, it was ultimately the Danish Expedition that inspired the team deeply and personally. The expedition features two Qatari nomadic families, the Al Marri and Al Naimi. Within our team of research assistants, we were incredibly fortunate to have members of each family.

We focused on our discoveries from the Danish Expedition and go to the paths of our research assistants’, the Al Naimi and Al Marri. During the last two weekends of October, with the help of desert ecologist Dr. Aspa Chatziefthimiou, and the entire (In)>Tangible lab team, the research assistants were able to step into the paths of their great-great grandmothers to re-trace their footprints in an act of co-presence.