Nader Kadhim, a Bahraini cultural critic and professor at the University of Bahrain, declines to remain locked within the limits of an academic subspecialty. Such disciplinary silos, he says, are “academic prisons”.
“University is universal by nature, hence the name,” Kadhim argues. “It is a university and an association of many disciplines. However, this ended with locking up knowledge in disciplinary boxes that are getting narrower with time.”
Kadhim’s own research combines the methodologies of several humanities disciplines to critique the socio-cultural structure of Bahraini society. The Gulf Cooperation Council ministers of culture recently honoured him for his research into Bahrain’s modern history.
Kadhim, who is 48, was born Shia, which he calls a historical coincidence that “does not entail anything.” He refuses to be classified as Islamist, a Shia Islamist or a Shia intellectual, yet prominent Sunni and Shia scholars have praised his anti-sectarian writing.