GUST’s GSC provides insight into 1930s Kuwait
Price working to bring cross-cultural history to life
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 13: The Global Studies Center (GSC) at Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) announced today that a lecture was held by Alison Shan Price MBE, one of Kuwait’s most prolific theatre personalities, Founder of One World Actors Centre, UK, and Creative Director of TAQA Productions, Kuwait. The lecture was part of the GSC’s ongoing effort to bring the best speakers to GUST and the community.
The lecture portrayed the story of one of the last colonial women to travel through Arabia, British Arabist Dame Freya Stark. The attendees learned about her history, background, travels, and in particular, her two visits to pre-oil Kuwait in 1932 and 1937. Shan Price also provided a deeper understanding of life as a woman in the early twentieth century, and what it was like to be a lone female traveler.
Alison Shan Price MBE said, “Always the victor and never the victim; regardless of war, physical hardship, or constant barriers placed in her way, Dame Freya Stark is a universal inspiration.”
Alison Shan Price has lived in Kuwait for 33 years working with multinational artists to bring cross-cultural history to life through original performances. Later this month, Shan Price will portray Dame Freya Stark in a mono-drama entitled ‘Freya: Chasing the Horizons’, which will include Stark’s journeys in Arabia. In 2017, Shan Price was awarded the MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire — a grade within the British order of chivalry) by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honors List, for her Services to the Dramatic Arts in Kuwait and the Middle East.
The GSC is a leading research center on global studies, and a vehicle for engaging both internal and external communities through stimulating events and lectures on global issues. Head of the Global Studies Center at GUST, Dr Martin Rosenstock, said “We continually try to find new ways of enhancing the GUST academic experience by organizing events that bring together great minds and present unique viewpoints to learn from. The GSC provides the university with another outlet to showcase its prowess in contributing to academic research.”
The center aims to conduct cuttingedge research on cross-national political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental issues of critical importance, and share research output and information regionally and globally. The GSC seeks to foster public understanding of global issues and support the policy-making processes of concerned states.
GUST continues to build on its mission to become a knowledge-hub that benefits and engages students, academics, and the wider Kuwait community as a whole.