Mohamed Zayani’s Award-Winning Scholarship is Redefining Global Digital Studies – Georgetown University in Qatar
As debates over digital governance, AI, and social media’s role in shaping public life dominate headlines worldwide, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) celebrates the continued global recognition of Dr. Mohamed Zayani, whose groundbreaking research is transforming how scholars understand the digital era in the Middle East and beyond.
Dr. Zayani’s recent work, which is the outcome of an enduring research collaboration with Northwestern University in Qatar Professor Dr. Joe F. Khalil, is earning distinction across major scholarly platforms.
Their book The Digital Double Bind: Change and Stasis in the Middle East (Oxford University Press) has achieved a rare double distinction—earning the 2025 Sue DeWine Distinguished Scholarly Book Award from the National Communication Association (NCA) and an Honorable Mention for Best Book from the American Political Science Association’s Information Technology & Politics Section.
The innovative scholarship—anchored in both critical theory and regional expertise—has redefined how scholars and policymakers understand digital governance, social mobilization, and media in non-Western contexts.
Described by London School of Economics Communications and Social Theory Professor Nick Couldry as “A landmark study in the de-westernization of media research,” the book has been hailed as a pivotal contribution to global communication scholarship.
The Digital Double Bind explores how digital infrastructures, economic systems, and state institutions in the Middle East simultaneously drive change and reinforce the status quo. Anchored in rich case studies, the book sheds light on the creative tensions shaping the region’s technological evolution and development trajectory.
Commenting on the broad significance of the book, renowned sociologist Anthony Giddens noted: “this is an essential reading not only for those specializing in the Middle East, but for anyone concerned with the impact of the digital revolution more generally.”
Dr. Mohamed Zayani is the director of the Media and Politics Program and an affiliate faculty with the Culture, Communication and Technology Program. Currently, he is working on a new book project with Joe F. Khalil on how digitality is reconfiguring territoriality, to be published by Cambridge University Press.
