Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi ( ar, سلطان سعود القاسمي) is an Emirati educator, art collector, scholar, and columnist. As an Al-Qassemi, he is a member of the ruling family of

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital ...

. Al-Qassemi is an influential commentator on Arab affairs, and is known for his use of social media—

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

in particular. He has been described by numerous media outlets as a prominent voice during the events of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...

. In 2010, he founded the

Barjeel Art Foundation Barjeel Art Foundation is a non-profit arts organisation based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The foundation was established in 2010 by Emirati commentator Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi to manage and exhibit his personal art collection. There are ov ...

, an organization dedicated to art of North Africa and West Asia based in

. Al-Qassemi is increasingly regarded as an authority on modern and contemporary art in the region. In February 2014 Al-Qassemi joined the Global Commission on Internet Governance and in the summer of 2014 became an

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Media Lab Director's Fellow. He has completed a number of academic fellowships and residencies, including at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

as a World Fellow, at the Kennedy School's

Belfer Center The Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, also known as the Belfer Center, is a research center located within the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, in the United States. From 2017 until his death in Oc ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and others. He has also offered courses on the Politics of Modern Middle Eastern Art as a visiting scholar at universities including NYU,

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifi ...

Brandeis University Brandeis University is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jews, Jewish community, Brandeis was established on t ...

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

, and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

. The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut's Global Influence list of Arabic thought leaders ranked Al-Qassemi number 19 in 2018. Al-Qassemi is also the Chairman of Barjeel Geojit Securities, a joint-venture that was formed with Geojit Financial Services of India.

Barjeel Art Foundation

Quote featured at the Fire Station art supplier store, Doha, Qatar

Al-Qassemi is the founder of the Sharjah-based

whose mission is to promote art by artists from the Arab world through exhibitions locally and internationally. He was on the panel of judges on Sheikha Manal's Young Artist Award in 2010, 2011 and 2016. Al-Qassemi was also part of the Jury and Selection Committee of The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award 2017. In January 2020, Sultan and

debuted the largest collection of abstract art by Arab artists i
"Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950's-1980's"
curated by Suheyla Takesh at NYU Grey Art Gallery. This U.S. traveling exhibition explores mid-20th-century abstract art from North Africa, West Asia, and the Arab diaspora.

Barjeel Geojit

Barjeel Geojit was formed as a joint venture between Al-Qassemi and Geojit Financial Services of India in the year 2000. The company is an eight time consecutive winner of Best Performing Financial Advisor in NRI Category at the CNBC-TV18 Financial Advisor Awards. Al-Qassemi was also featured in the World Economic Forum's list of Young Global Leaders in 2011 as the Chairman of Barjeel Geojit Securities.

Articles

Al-Qassemi's articles have appeared in 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

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...

cities as cultural and commercial centres of the region. Al-Qassemi has written about media in the Arab world, the Jewish presence in Middle East, British journalists coverage of Dubai and atheism in the Persian Gulf among other topics. He has also written articles on modern art and aspects of popular culture in West Asia and North Africa. An archive of his articles and interviews appears here.

Awards & Recognitions

* #39, Apollo 40 Under 40 Global, Apollo Magazine, 2017 * #63, 100 Most Powerful Arabs, Gulf Business, February 2014 * #82, 100 Most Powerful Arabs, Gulf Business, 2013 *'140 Best Twitter Feeds', TIME, 2011

Books

* Chapter "The Arab world : a sum of its parts" in ''"Imperfect chronology: Arab art from the modern to the contemporary: works from the Barjeel Art Foundation"'', edited by Omar Kholeif with Candy Stobbs, published:

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the f ...

, 2015 *''Building Sharjah'' (Co-edited with Todd Reisz), 2021 *''Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf: Obsolescence and Opportunities'' (Co-edited with Roberto Fabbri), 2022

References

External links

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Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi on Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Qassemi, Sultan Sooud Living people Emirati Internet celebrities People from Dubai Emirati journalists Emirati art collectors Emirati political scientists Emirati bloggers European Business School London alumni American University of Paris alumni Year of birth missing (living people)