​The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies have published the 50th issue (Autumn 2024) of the quarterly peer-reviewed journal Omran, dedicated to the social sciences. This special issue on “Water Ways: Critical Studies in the History of the Arabian Gulf and Palestine,” includes an introduction by the guest editor, Ismail Nashef, in addition to 4 articles “The Sailing Scribe: Mansur Al-Khariji and the Oceanic Worlds of the Gulf” by Fahad Ahmad Bishara; “The Drought Years: The Forgotten Economic Transformations in Gulf History” by Amna Abdulla Sadiq; “The Sea vs. the Desert: Rahmah ibn Jabir and the Dialectic of Piracy and Maritime Influence” by Faozi Al-Goidi; and “Star-Tied Water: Tracing Life in a Colonized Palestinian Village during the Time of the Anthropocene” by Yasmeen Qadan. In addition, the articles section includes a study titled “The Illusion of the Tunisian Exception: Civil Society and Democratic Transition” by Mehdi Mabrouk.

The issue also includes a translation of Henri Leridon’s “Fertility Theories: Are Demographers Neutral?” by Mada Shuraiki. In the reports section, Adel Maalel contributes his paper “An Arab Assessment of Social Media’s Socio-Cultural Impacts: Analysis of the 2022 Arab Opinion Index Results”. Two book reviews are featured: Hichem Charfi’s review of The Sea History in Tunisia and Its Memory in the Modern Period: Between the Oral and The Written by As-Saghira Ben Hamida; and Sidi Elmeghari’s review of My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine by Sami Hermez. The issue ends with five previews of recent publications, prepared by the editorial board.