Management

Hoor Al Qasimi

President,
Global Studies University, Sharjah, UAE

Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Global Studies University (GSU), has played a central role in the development of the university since its founding. She served as Director of The Africa Institute in 2018, guiding its initial programs and shaping its academic vision. In her dual leadership roles, she oversees the university’s strategic direction, academic programs, and institutional governance, strengthening GSU’s position as a hub for interdisciplinary research and global scholarship.

Al Qasimi is also President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, the independent public arts organization she established in 2009 as a catalyst and advocate for the arts in Sharjah, the UAE, and internationally. She co-curated Sharjah Biennial 6 (2003) and Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (2023). In addition, she serves as President and Director of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, which inaugurated its first edition in November 2019, and in 2024 was appointed to head the Sharjah Creative Quarter (SCQ). In December 2025, she assumed the presidency of the University of the Art Sharjah.

Al Qasimi’s contributions to the arts have been recognized internationally. She was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Embassy of France in the UAE (2025) and was included in ArtReview magazine’s 2024 Power 100 as the most influential figure in contemporary art, acknowledging her leadership and impact across the global cultural and creative sectors.

She has participated in a range of international boards and advisory bodies, including Kunst-Werke Berlin e. V., Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, and the Advisory Board of the College of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Sharjah. She has served on juries and committees for international prizes and institutions, including MoMA PS1, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, the Prince Claus Award Committee, MAXXI Bulgari Prize, and the Future Generation Art Prize.

Al Qasimi holds an MA in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art, London (2008). She earned a diploma in painting from the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005), and received a BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2002). She also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK (2023).

Salah M. Hassan

Chancellor, Global Studies University
Dean, The Africa Institute, GSU
Professor of African Art History and Visual Studies

Salah M. Hassan is the Chancellor of Global Studies University (GSU), Dean of The Africa Institute, Sharjah, and a member of the university’s Board of Trustees. He has led The Africa Institute since its founding in 2018, and in 2023, he assumed his dual roles as Chancellor and Dean, underscoring his central role in shaping the academic and cultural vision of both institutions.

Hassan is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Africana Studies at Cornell University, where he also directs the Institute for Comparative Modernities (ICM) and serves as Professor of Art History and Visual Culture. His academic and curatorial expertise spans several decades, contributing significantly to Africana studies and contemporary African art.

He previously served as the Madeleine Haas Russell Professor at Brandeis University in the Departments of African and Afro-American Studies and Fine Arts (2016–2018). He is an accomplished art critic, curator, and editor, known for co-founding and editing Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Duke University Press). He serves on the editorial advisory boards of Atlantica, Journal of Curatorial Studies, and the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and has been a consulting editor for African Arts.

Hassan has authored, edited, and co-edited numerous books, including Darfur and the Crisis of Governance: A Critical Reader (2009), Diaspora, Memory, Place (2008), and Ibrahim El Salahi: A Visionary Modernist (2012), and has contributed essays to journals, anthologies, and exhibition catalogues. He guest-edited a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly titled African Modernism (2010).

His curatorial work includes major international exhibitions such as Authentic/Ex-Centric at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), Unpacking Europe in Rotterdam (2001–02), and 3×3: Three Artists/Three Projects at Dak’Art (2004). More recently, he curated Kamala Ibrahim Ishag: States of Oneness at the Serpentine South, London (2023) and Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023 at the Sharjah Art Foundation (2023). For SAF, his exhibitions include The Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan, 1945–2016 (2016–2017) and When Art Becomes Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists (1938–1965) (2016).

Hassan’s contributions have been recognized with numerous grants and fellowships, including the J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship, as well as support from the Sharjah Art Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Prince Claus Fund. In 2021, he was honored as Distinguished Professor by the College Art Association (CAA), the oldest and largest scholarly organization for the history and criticism of the visual arts.

Binyam Sisay Mendisu

Associate Dean, Director of Graduate Studies, and Professor of African Languages and Linguistics

Binyam Sisay Mendisu completed his Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Oslo in 2008. From 2008 to 2016, he held full-time teaching positions at Addis Ababa University (AAU), starting as an Assistant Professor and later becoming an Associate Professor. During his tenure as the founding Dean of Humanities from 2010 to 2012 at AAU, Mendisu took the initiative to organize and lead a series of multidisciplinary and critical discussions called ‘Conversations on Humanities’.

In his role as an education specialist at UNESCO-IICBA, Mendisu focused on providing technical support for teacher policy development in countries such as Uganda, the Seychelles, Burundi, Malawi, and Mozambique. He also led various projects and initiatives related to mother tongue and early childhood education.

In 2014-2016, Mendisu initiated and served as the project leader for an international project called ‘Linguistic Capacity Building: Tools for Inclusive Development of Ethiopia’, which received support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). Since 2017, he has been a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) and is an inaugural fellow of the African Science Leadership Program (ASLP) at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Currently, Mendisu is a member of the Steering Committee of ASLP and serves as one of the program’s facilitators. Additionally, he is a member of the 2021 Letten Prize Committee, which recognizes the contributions of early career researchers worldwide who exemplify how research can address global human development challenges. In 2023, he was elected as a fellow of the International Science Council (ISC).

He currently serves as Professor of African Languages and Linguistics, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Dean of The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.

Research

Mendisu’s research considers language as an archive of local knowledge and memory.

Publications

Mendisu, Binyam Sisay, ed. A Special Issue on Language Education and Use in Early Grades in Ethiopia. Special issue, Journal of Ethiopian Studies 57, no. 1 (2024).
Mendisu, Binyam S., Abdu Ahmed Ali, and Aquilina Mawadza. Amharic-English/English-Amharic Dictionary and Phrasebook. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2018.
Mendisu, Binyam S., and Janne Bondi Johannessen. Multilingual Ethiopia: Linguistic Challenges and Capacity Building Efforts. University of Oslo, 2016.
Mendisu, Binyam Sisay, and Moges Yigezu. “Restoring African Studies to Its Linguistic Identity: Reflections on Ethiopian Studies.” Social Dynamics 40, no. 2 (2014): 289-307.
“What is in a Term? A Historical and Linguistic Examination of the Revolutionary Terminology – yiwdem ‘let it be demolished’ in Amharic 1974-1977.” Journal of Northeast African Studies 13, no. 1 (2013): 53-70.
“Ethiopian Linguistics at the Dawn of the 21st Century.” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 42, no. 1/2 (June-December 2009): 69-83.

Sara Majdi

Director of Academic Affairs

Contacts:
+971 6 511 2403

Sataan Al-Hassan

Director of Administration and Operations

Sataan Al-Hassan is the Director of Administration and Operations at The Africa Institute. He joined the Institute in 2019 as the Head of Publications, Programming, and Research and has since advanced to his current role. Al-Hassan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication with a minor in Film Studies from the American University of Sharjah and an MSc in Political Theory from the University of Edinburgh. His MSc dissertation examined the permissibility of humanitarian intervention in liberal democracies.

President, Global Studies University, Sharjah, UAE

Chancellor, Global Studies University Dean, The Africa Institute, GSU Professor of African Art History and Visual Studies