A Scholarly Platform
The DI is predicated on providing a platform whereby teaching, learning, and research interact and are in constant dialogue with one another.
All aspects of the DI have been designed to create an environment conducive to this ambition. To this end, engagement between student and teacher occurs through different mediums, spaces and scales. Discussion groups, tutorials, and workshops complement traditional educational forums such as seminars and lectures. Academic, social, recreational, and housing facilities are interconnected within the campus to further facilitate vibrant intellectual activity both inside and outside the classroom.
In establishing such a communal place the DI seeks to create an enduring legacy of intellectual innovation and education within the Arab world and beyond.
Research
In an atmosphere of institutional and intellectual freedom, guided by scientific standards, the DI supports innovative scholarly research concerned with issues that affect the Arab region.
To achieve its mission, the DI views its research programs as closely integrated with teaching and learning. The two schools along with the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic, will provide avenues for students and faculty to collectively explore pressing issues affecting the Arab region and the global community. Providing students with opportunities to engage in ongoing research projects, employing multidisciplinary perspectives, will be imperative to research at the DI.
Teaching and Learning
Teaching and learning are integrated with research in a student-centered environment that seeks knowledge through searching, dialogue, and discovery. This is enabled by low student-faculty-ratios, continuous consultation between students and academic supervisors, weekly seminars structured along student presentations and group discussions. Furthermore, research is constantly woven into teaching and learning through research-intensive writing assignments and assigned readings. The DI also hosts public lectures, academic workshops, and conferences to allow students to benefit from the latest research in the social sciences and humanities.
This environment is further reinforced through curricula designed to encourage learning across disciplines. The school core compulsory courses, taken in the first year, ensure students' exposure to a breadth of disciplines. Further, the study of pressing cross-disciplinary issues through special topics courses, offers faculty the opportunity to explore topics that reflect their research interests, thus enhancing synergy between teaching and research. Students may also choose a concentration within their main discipline.
Language
The DI assumes and promotes the Arabic language as a tool of scientific inquiry, an official language in public discourse, and a primary language for teaching and research. By using a rich, expressive, and precise vocabulary and lexicon, DI faculty and students are expected to utilize Arabic in academia and research.
While Arabic is the primary language of instruction, English is regarded as a companion language in learning and scholarship. Both languages will be actively used in the delivery and study of different subjects and some courses may employ both languages to examine various aspects of the same subject. Upon graduation, students are expected to effectively express themselves in both languages, in oral and written contexts.
