The project’s program and its achievements:
As it stands, the project consists of three types of basic activities, which are: translation, a forum for young researchers in social sciences, and an international symposium.
1) Translation:
Translation of 50 books based on the suggestions of an advisory committee made up of Arab and European advisors. Written in different languages, these books will be translated and reviewed by renowned specialist translators from a number of Arab countries. The topics of the books include humanities–rational thought, social sciences, arts, communication, and discourse analysis. Generally speaking, the focus is on encouraging objective and rational thinking in intellectual matters and historical and social phenomena, as well as helping to understand and interpreting art. The list includes important dictionaries of international renown, such as the Oxford Companion to Philosophy and The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich of which more than 7 million copies have been printed and is currently in its 16th edition!
Given that every book needs at least one translator and one reviewer, the translation aspect of the program will involve around 100 Arab specialist contributors.
The following titles have been published so far:
- Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
- Les Langues du paradis
- Les Grecs ont-ils cru à leurs mythes ? Essai sur l’imagination constituante
- La Psychanalyse: Science, Thérapie et cause
- Les trois écritures: Langue, nombre, code
- The End of the World as We Know It: Social Science for the Twenty-First Century
- Le temps en ruines
- Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc
- Les Origines de la pensée grecque
- A Social History of Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet
- The Story of Art
- The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
- A Social History of the Media: from Gutenberg to the internet
- Ethnologie de la porte
- Non-Lieux-introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité
- Qu’est-ce que le virtuel ?
- Faut-il penser autrement l’histoire du monde ?
- Faut-il vraiment découper l’histoire en tranches ?
2) Arab-European Forum for Young Researchers in Social Sciences (2015 and 2016):
This forum brings together a group of young Arab and European researchers from the Masters and Doctoral levels who wish to discuss and further develop their academic research projects by exchanging expertise, all under the supervision of qualified and experienced Arab and European researchers and university professors. Candidates who apply for this event, or are nominated by their universities must be 33 years old or younger. Only a limited number of nominations are accepted, as determined by the scientific papers provided.
This week-long forum is held in the Kingdom of Bahrain and features 20 young researchers from Arab and foreign countries, in addition to the professors supervising the submitted scientific papers.
A) The first forum was held in Manama from 19 – 26 of October, 2015, and featured 20 researchers from France, Italy, Lebanon, Algeria, United States of America, Canada, Palestine, Jordan, Oman, Morocco, and Tunisia, as well as professors from Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, France, and Italy. A recommendation was issued to make the forum a regular annual event hosted by Bahrain.
B) The second edition of the forum was held in Manama from October 26 to November 2, 2016, and features 20 researchers from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Palestine, Italy, France, Senegal, Cameroon, and Slovenia, as well as professors from Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Germany, and France. The forum reiterated the recommendation from the first forum to make the event a regular annual event.
3) International Symposium: The Image of the Other: Intersecting Views (2016):
This symposium aims to explore the perceptions, generalizations, and attitudes between different cultures and peoples, especially between Arabs and others, and thus identifying the cultural factors that impede real and reciprocal understanding, and to foster constructive dialogue between cultures predicated on a genuine desire to cast away these distorted perceptions, generalizations, and attitudes, to create a sincere wish to know the other.
This symposium does not follow the traditional context of Arab-European dialogue, for its objective is one of knowledge, culture, and humanitarianism. This direction, as well as the size and quality of the participants, makes this an important Bahraini initiative on the Arab and international levels.
The symposium took place on the 24th–26th of November, 2016 following the delivery and evaluation of the invitees’ research papers. The event has been announced to a wide global audience and features around 60 researchers and university professors from over 25 countries which are: Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Burkina Faso, Germany, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Spain, Congo, Belgium, Cameroon, and Romania.
Over the long term:
With its lofty objectives and the level of its target audience and participants, the Knowledge Transfer Project has been very well received both in the Arab world, and internationally. Participants from across the project’s various activities have made recommendations to make it a permanent regular event, particularly the Arab-European Forum for Young Researchers in Social Sciences in order for it to become a truly iconic and permanent international intellectual milestone in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
