media majlis museum Podcast

The Limits of My Language Are the Limits of My World | Amal Ali

Episode Summary

How does language affect the way we see the world? This is the question that the upcoming exhibition at the Media Majlis Museum "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" seeks to address. For the first episode of this podcast powered by afikra, we sat down with Amal Ali, curatorial exhibition manager at Northwestern University Qatar, to dig deeper into what this exhibition is all about. We talk about the relationship between language and identity, the unique nature of Arabic as a language with many dialects, and how its perception impacts its speakers. We also learn about how borrowed and loanwords in language point to cultural gaps and imbalanced exchanges through history — with the word for "orange" in Arabic being a prime example.

Episode Notes

How does language affect the way we see the world? This is the question that the upcoming exhibition at the Media Majlis Museum "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" seeks to address. For the first episode of this podcast powered by afikra, we sat down with Amal Ali, curatorial exhibition manager at Northwestern University Qatar, to dig deeper into what this exhibition is all about. We talk about the relationship between language and identity, the unique nature of Arabic as a language with many dialects, and how its perception impacts its speakers. We also learn about how borrowed and loanwords in language point to cultural gaps and imbalanced exchanges through history — with the word for "orange" in Arabic being a prime example.

Amal shares how the university community has been involved in the development of this exhibition, how she sought to explore questions of preservation and conservation of language, and the limited digital presence of the Arabic language compared to the number of people who speak it in the world.

Amal Ali is a museum curator and cultural producer based in Qatar. She's currently a curatorial exhibition manager at Northwestern University in Qatar.

Connect with Amal 👉 https://www.instagram.com/amalgam8or/

Read more about mm:museum's 2024 exhibition "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" 👉 https://mediamajlis.northwestern.edu/en/whats-on/exhibitions-programs/the-limits-of-my-language-are-the-limits-of-my-world-27-aug-2024-05-dec-2024

Connect with the mm:museum at Northwestern University Qatar 👉 https://www.instagram.com/themediamajlis/

Hosted by:

Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/

FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:

» Apple Podcasts

» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3p87MwQuJWOXG9X3h7NBuU

» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1056900096

THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK

Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl6JKXIPDF5oHzzMEc_veM2n

ABOUT AFIKRA

afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.

📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters

🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts

⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_

🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official

🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikra