Paris: For the first time, the Ministry of Culture is organizing a special edition of the Seminar Season on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, at the Arab World Institute headquarters in Paris, with the participation of a distinguished group of officials, intellectuals, and academics from both Qatar and France.
According to Qatar News Agency, this special edition of the Seminar Season, now in its fourth season, includes two discussion sessions. The first is on the future of cultural dialogue between the Arab world and Europe, while the second covers the topic of Arab culture in European capitals, interactions and creativity.
The Seminar Season will feature a group of Qatari researchers and academics, including former President of Qatar University (QU) Dr. Hassan Rashid Al Derham; HE former Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) between 2001 and 2020 and prominent Qatari diplomat and academic Ali Al Zainal; and Researcher of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, with a PhD in Gulf Studies from QU Dr. Al Anoud Abdullah Al Khalifa.
A number of French researchers and academics will also participate in the Paris edition of the Seminar Season. These include medieval scholar and professor of Arabic philosophy at the University of Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne, Jean-Baptiste Brenet; a lecturer in comparative literature at the University of La Reunion, Benedicte Letellier; historian specializing in popular cultures associated with immigration to France, Naima Yahi; and French writer, playwright, and translator Mohamed Kacimi.
This first international edition of the Seminar Season comes within the framework of the Ministry of Culture’s efforts to establish new cultural partnerships with influential international cultural, research, and academic institutions, and to consolidate Qatar’s cultural presence in the global cultural scene. It also provides an opportunity for Qatari intellectuals, academics, and researchers to open new horizons for dialogue and fruitful intellectual exchange with intellectuals from around the world and with academic institutions that lead intellectual and academic work in Europe in general and France in particular.
In this context, HE Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, Dr. Ghanem bin Mubarak Al Ali, said that the Ministry’s vision from the outset was to expand the Seminar Season activities to include major global capitals, and to conclude cultural agreements with the world’s renowned academic, research, and cultural institutions. This was in addition to attracting prominent intellectuals, thinkers, and creatives from around the world, all in an effort to consolidate Qatar’s cultural standing and deepen its influence in the global cultural movement.
Speaking on the fourth edition of the season, HE the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture explained that it will achieve a new qualitative leap, as it seeks to further open up to international experiences during future editions. However, it will always remain an open cultural platform for fruitful and constructive dialogue, and a cultural platform that celebrates intellectuals, thinkers, and creatives in Qatar and the world, with the aim of building strong bridges of cultural communication, intellectual interaction, cultural exchange, and openness to cultural experiences worldwide.
Notably, the Seminar Season has, in its previous editions, contributed to enriching cultural activity within the State of Qatar, becoming a key platform for in-depth intellectual dialogue among Qatari cultural and social actors. Through its partnerships with QU and the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, it provides an important cultural service to society, expanding the horizons of dialogue within it.
The season also witnessed significant participation from experts, academics, intellectuals, media professionals, creatives, and opinion makers from Qatar and worldwide, transforming it into a distinguished space for the exchange of ideas and creativity, thus contributing to shaping a new Qatari and global cultural reality built on the values of diversity, openness, and effective and influential cultural partnership.