Conferences/ Seminars
Invited Speaker/Keynote
1- Invited to expert panel on: “Sport, State, and Society” in the MENA region, organized by Georgetown University in Qatar, the School of Foreign Service . 12-13 December, 2017. https://cirs.georgetown.edu/research/faculty-research/sports-society-and-state-middle-east
2- Mahfoud Amara, Postcolonial Approach to the study of Sport in the Arab World. Sport and Society Symposium. Organized by Centre of Humanities and Social Sciences, 11th May 2016. Qatar University
3-Guest Lecturer: Sport, Media and Politics in the Arab Region . Sport and Media Class led by Dr Amy Sanders. Northwestern University (Qatar), 26th May, 2016.
4-Invited speaker at HEC Paris in Qatar on “ Sport and Knowledge-base economy in Qatar- Challenges and opportunities”, Knowledge based Economy in the Gulf: with a focus on Qatar. Organised by Prof. Laoucine Kerbache and Dr Remi Piet. 25th-27th October 2016.
5-Invited keynote speaker: Reflections on Muslim (over)visibility in sport. International Workshop Muslims, Sport and Physical Activity, December 7, 2015. Paus College Adrianus VI – University of Leuven, Belgium.
6-Guest lecturer- “Olympic Ideology Global and Local; Past and Present”- Qatar Olympic Academy- May 2016
7– Speaker at Josoor Institute Workshop- “ Sport development and sport for development”. Professional Development Workshop Marketing and PR for Sports and Major Events. Co-organized with Sport Sciences Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, 29th February – 01 March 2016
8– Invited Guest lecturer: Sports, Politics, and Society in the Arab World (via Skype), Monday, November 16, 2015. The talk is associated with Bill Rosenberg’s course on the Politics of Sport and is part of the University’s Global Classroom Initiative
9–Invited to speak at the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union’s (2015) conference on Sport and Physical Activity for the development of Human Capital, held 16th February 2015 at the National Library of Lativia, Riga. I was also Moderator of a Workshop on Sport and Social Environment and contributed to the drafting of the conference’s general conclusion. See link.
10– Invited Speaker, Festival of Ideas Panel Event: Playing and Praying? Sport and Religion in Britain Today, The Woolf Institute, University of Cambridge, Ed Kessler (Chair), Michael Berkowitz, Mahfoud Amara, Omar Salha, Salma Bi, Adrian Cassidy. See Link.
11- Invited Speaker, Workshop “BODY, SPORT AND POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES” (Université de Lausanne, 5- 6 June 2014).
12– Invited speaker, presented a paper on “‘Doping as Fatwa’ presenting a framework for the study of drugs and body, including doping and anti-doping in sport, Islamic ethics and Muslim societies”. A two-day symposium titled ‘The History of Doping and Anti-Doping’, Anti-Doping Lab in Qatar, 5-6 May 2013. See Link
13- Invited Speaker, presented on the Discourse on Doping and Anti-Doping in the Arab World, 4th Annual Symposium titled “Anti-Doping; Sport Integrity & Public Health”, Anti-Doping Lab in Qatar, 6&7 May 2014, Doha, Qatar.
14-Invited to participate in an expert panel on the role of Sport Security and Integrity in Economic Development, as part of the 2013 ICSS Sport Expert Summit. The event organised by the International Centre of Sport Security (based in Doha, Qatar) in partnership with the Austrian Ministry of Interior, took place in Vienna at Bundesministerium für Inneres from the 16th-17th May 2013 to explore issues and challenges in sport security, safety and integrity
15- Invited speaker, Sport Policy in Small Nations: Insights from the Middle East and North Africa region”, the Future of Sport in Small Nations Symposium, 21-23 November 2012, New Zealand’s National School of Physical Education, University of Otago, Dunedine. http://physed.otago.ac.nz/hosted/sportinsmallnations2012/programme.html
16- Invited to participate in a Working Group hosted by the Centre for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at the Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service in Qatar. The Working Group, which gathered together a small number of renowned scholars focusing on “Social Currents in the Maghreb”, held in Washington DC, on January 7th and 8th, 2014. http://cirs.georgetown.edu/424771.html.
17– Invited to a Panel on Equality and Ethnicity (Session III); Experts conference— Ensuring equal chances through sport participation as a social policy element, City Hall, Wrocław (Poland) , July 18-19, 2011, organised by the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Sport and Tourism, Poland.
18– Invited speaker: Mahfoud Amara, ‘Football: The New Battlefield on Business in Algeria’, 15 November 2010, as part of the seminar series ‘The Modern Maghreb: Politics, People and Energy’ organised by the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), Durham University.
19– Invited speaker: Mahfoud Amara and Ian Henry – Sport, Muslim Identities and Cultures in the UK: Case Studies of Sport, Religiosity and Policy in Leicester and Birmingham, “Journée d’étude européenne, Dialogue(s) interculturel(s) par le sport ? Modèles européens, catégorisations et controverses scientifiques”, organised by Sport and Social Sciences Research Group, University of Strasbourg, in partnership with la Confédération Européenne des Universités du Rhin supérieur (Eucor), 8 November 2010,Strasbourg, France.
20– Invited Speaker: Mahfoud Amara, Veiled Women Athletes in the 2008 Beijing Olympics: A Media Account. International Conference: Nationalism, Orientalism and Globalism: the Asian Games, Asian Sports and the Rising Asia, December 6th and 7th 2010, Chengdu Sport University, China. The conference was jointly organized with Chengdu Sport University, The International Journal of the History of Sport (IJHS) and and the School of Asian Studies at University College Cork, Ireland.
21- Invited speaker: International Symposium- Internationalism in the Olympic Movement: Idea and Reality between States, Cultures and People, Institute of Sport Sciences, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 22nd of May 2009. Presented a paper on “Olympic Sport and Internationalism Debates in the Arab-Muslim World: Between ‘Modernity’ and ‘Authenticity'”.
22– Invited Speaker: A two-day international conference on the role of regions in building a legacy of sports participation and excellence, Organized by Kurdistan Regional Government in partnership with Sport Council Wales, Cardiff, 9-10 December 2008. Presented a paper on The role of sport in post-conflict nations.
International Conferences
23- Amara, M. (2015) Sport Labor Migrant Communities from the Maghreb in the GCC, ISSA World Congress of Sociology of Sport, June 9-12 in Paris France
24- Amara, M, (2013) The Business of Sport in the Arabian Peninsula: the global-local nexus. In Sport and Nationalism in Asia – Power, Politics, and Identity, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
25- Garcia Garcia, B and Amara, M (2012) The New ‘reconquista’ of Europe through Football: Arab
Investment in Top Professional Clubs. In UACES 42nd annual conference, Passau (Germany), pp.1-12.
26- Amara, Mahfoud. “Sport, Internationalism and Regionalism Debates in the Arab-Muslim World: between ‘Modernity’ and ‘Authenticity'”. Le sport dans les pays du Moyen Orient et d’Afrique du Nord. Enjeux sociaux et symboliques (Panel 073), organised by Prof. Michel Raspaud, The World Congress of Middle Eastern Studies, Barcelona 19 -24 July 2010, IEMed European Institute of the Mediterranean.
27- Amara, Mahfoud and Henry, Ian. (2010) “Sport, Muslim Identities and Cultures in the UK: Case studies of Leicester and Birmingham”, RC 27 Sociology of Sport, XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, Sociology on the move, 11-17 July, Gothenburg, Sweden.
28- Discourses on Modern Sport and Values in a Non-western Context: a Case Study of Algeria. ESMQ Methodology Workshop Discourse in Sport Management Research Application and Procedures, 15th EASM Congress, 13th September 2007, Turin.
29- Amara, M., ”Modernisation thesis, hegemony theory, modern sport and Olympic Games”, 8th International Postgraduate Seminar on Olympic Studies of the International Olympic Academy, IOC Publications, Ancient Olympia, Greece, May 2000, pp.
30- Amara, M., ”Global Sport and local identity: Case study of the Algerian’s government project for professional sport”, 1er Colloque International de Management du Sport. Le Sport comme Vecteur de Développement Economique et Social, Faculté des Sciences du Sport/UFR – STAPS, Dijon & Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sport-IRFC, Rabat-Salé, March 2002, pp, [CD-ROM].
31- Amara, M., ”A case study of the Algerian Government’s Project for Professional Sport”, Proceedings of the 7th annual congress of the European College of Sports Science, Koskolou, M. (ed.), Pashalidis Medical Publisher, European College of Sports Science, Athens, Greece, July 2002, p. 175.
32- Amara, M., ”Sport, Arab nationalism and the Pan-Arab Games”, Proceedings of the 7th annual congress of the European College of Sports Science, Koskolou, M. (ed.), Pashalidis Medical Publisher, European College of Sports Science, Athens, Greece, July 2002, p. 68.
33- Amara, M., ”Global Sport and Local Identity: Case study of the Algerian Government’s Project for Professional Sport”, L’Algerie: 40 ans après (1962-2002). Bilan d’une indépendance Colloque international, Lancaster University, July 2002, pp.
34- Amara, M., ”Professionalism of Sport between Tradition and Modernity, a Case Study of the Algerian government’s project for Professional Sport”, 10th EASM Congress, Jyväskylä, Finland, September 2002.
35- Amara, M., ”Professionalisation of Football in Non-Western Context: Globalisation, Local modernity and Post modernity”, 11th EASM Congress, Stockholm University College of Phys Ed and Sports, 2003.
36- Henry, I.P., Liang, J., Uchiumi, K. and Amara, M., ”The Roles of the State in the Changing Governance of Professional Soccer: Four Case Studies”, 11th EASM Congress, Stockholm University, 2003.
37- Amara, M., Henry, I.P. and Aquilina, D., ”Sport and multiculturalism, between universalism and particulism: Sport and integration of Muslim minorities in Europe”, Proceedings of the 9th annual congress of the European College of Sport Science, Clermont-Ferrand, France, July 2004.
38- Aquilina, D., Henry, I.P. and Amara, M., ”Young athletes and educational rights in European nation states”, Proceedings of the 9th annual congress of the European College of Sports Science, Clermont-Ferrand, France, July 2004.
39- Henry, I.P., Amara, M. and Aquilina, D., ”Philosophies of integration and assimilation in sport policies in European nation states”, Proceedings of the 9th annual congress of the European College of Sport Science, Clermont-Ferrand, France, July 2004, pp.
40-Amara, M., Henry, I.P. and Aquilina, D., ”Toward a New Approach for the Study of Sport and Muslim Communities in Europe”, Leisure and the Young Migrant: Identity, Integration and Community, 1st World Leisure European Conference, Malmö, Sweden, May 2005.
41- Aquilina, D., Amara, M., Henry, I.P., Coalter, F. and Taylor, J., ”The Roles of sport and education in the social inclusion of Asylum Seekers and Refugees”, Leisure and the Young Migrant: Identity, Integration and Community, 1st World Leisure European Conference, Malmö, Sweden, May 2005.
42- Amara, M., ”A modernisation project from above? Sport between ‘modernity’ and ‘authenticity’ in the Gulf countries, in ‘late modernity”’, 10th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Belgrade, July 2005.
43- Amara, M., ”When the Arab World was Mobilised Around the FIFA World Cup 2006”, Sport in the Global World: Past-Present-Future, ISSA & ISHPES Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007.
