Fahed Al-Sumait

Fahed Al-Sumait is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies specializing in strategic and political communication, intercultural studies, and digital inequalities in Kuwait and the Arabian Peninsula. He is currently Associate Dean for General Education at the American University of Kuwait, Vice President of the Arab-U.S. Association for Communication Educators (AUSACE), and a member of the Senior Research Advisory Council at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). He is also the Immediate Past President, a founding member and currently an Executive Board member of the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS) through the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Previously, Dr. Al-Sumait also held several executive leadership positions at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), including Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs, Department Chair, Curriculum Coordinator, interim Dean of Student Affairs, and inaugural Chair of the Global Studies Center.
 
Dr. Al-Sumait has served as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow, a Postdoctoral Fellow, and later an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in the National University of Singapore (NUS), as well as a visiting Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre (MEC) in the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is co-author of two edited volumes, Covering Bin Laden: Global Media and the World’s Most Wanted Man (University of Illinois Press, 2015) and The Arab Uprisings: Catalysts, Dynamics and Trajectories (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). His research has been supported by the Fulbright program, the National Science Foundation, the LSE, the World Information Access Project, the Peter Clarke Fund, KFAS, and the U.S. Title VI program, among others. He holds an MA from the University of New Mexico and a PhD from the University of Washington, both in Communication studies.