Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi | |
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Sultan on top of Tahrir Square on the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution.
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Residence | Dubai, United Arab Emirates. |
Nationality | Emirati |
Alma mater |
American University of Paris European Business School |
Occupation | Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation Founder and Chairman of Barjeel Securities MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow Member of Global Commission on Internet Governance |
Known for | Barjeel Art Foundation |
Website |
http://www.barjeelartfoundation.org http://www.sultanalqassemi.com |
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi (Arabic: سلطان سعود القاسمي) is an Emirati commentator on Arab affairs. Sultan Al-Qassemi is widely recognized for his use of Twitter and has been described by numerous media outlets as a prominent voice during the events of the ongoing Arab Spring. In February 2014 Sultan Al Qassemi joined the Global Commission on Internet Governance and in the summer of 2014 became an MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow. In the Spring of 2017 Al Qassemi was a practitioner in residence at the Hagop Kevorkian Center of Near East Studies at New York University, where he offered a special course on Politics of Middle Eastern Art.
Sultan Al Qassemi is also the founder of the Sharjah-based Barjeel Art Foundation whose mission is to promote art by artists from the Arab world through a series of exhibitions locally and internationally. Al Qassemi was also on the panel of judges on Sheikha Manal's Young Artist Award in 2010.
Sultan Al Qassemi is also a prolific writer whose articles have appeared in various publications including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Independent and CNN. He sparked a debate in the UAE following an article in which he recommended that certain expatriates be granted UAE citizenship. In 2013 Sultan Al Qassemi was criticised for suggesting in an article that continuous civil unrest in parts of the Arab world is leading to the emergence of Gulf cities as cultural and commercial centres of the region.
Sultan Al Qassemi has also extensively written about media in the Arab world, the Jewish presence in Middle East, British journalists coverage of Dubai and atheism in the Gulf among other topics. An archive of his articles and interviews appears here.