Societal Engagement and Impact

Al Mawrid, Arab Centre for the Study of Art at NYU Abu Dhabi, was the focus of a full-page feature in The National (March 12). The article highlighted the center’s pioneering work in preserving and digitizing rare Arab art archives, underscoring its role as a leading hub for research and cultural scholarship in the region. It also reinforced NYUAD’s commitment to making Arab artistic heritage accessible to scholars and the public worldwide.

Tina Sherwell (Co-Director, MFA in Art and Media; Associate Arts Professor) and Terri Geis (Co-Director, MFA in Art and Media, Associate Professor of Art) guided this year’s MFA Thesis Exhibition, Unstable Grounds, which was the subject of a feature in The National on June 13, 2025. The article highlights the exhibition’s exploration of themes such as disappearance, distortion, and reclamation through a range of experimental works from carved stone slabs and ink-on-paper emotional cartographies to installations repurposing everyday objects, demonstrating the intellectual rigor and material ingenuity of NYUAD’s MFA cohort. Sherwell and Geis’s leadership of this interdisciplinary, studio-based graduate program, comprised of 20 students worldwide, underscores NYUAD’s commitment to fostering artistic innovation across diverse media and disciplinary backgrounds.

Antonios Vouloudis (Senior Director of Sustainability and Stewardship) was featured and quoted in The National on the UAE’s landmark Federal Climate Law, the first legislation to make climate action a legal requirement across all sectors. Vouloudis emphasized the significance of the law as “a pivotal shift in the regulatory landscape,” noting that climate responsibility is now essential to both long-term business resilience and national development. He also underscored the importance of building capacity for compliance, especially among small businesses, and highlighted how mandatory emissions reporting will reduce greenwashing and empower citizens to make informed, climate-conscious choices.

The Arts Center was featured in The National’s roundup of the UAE’s best cultural shows of the season, underscoring its role as a leading hub for arts and performance in the UAE. With a program that brings together world-class international artists and regional talent while showcasing UAE-based voices, the Arts Center continues to foster cultural exchange, creative expression, and community dialogue, cementing its position at the forefront of the nation’s cultural landscape.

The NYUAD Art Gallery was featured in Yalla Magazine for hosting Ala Younis' mid-career retrospective, Past of a Temporal Universe, opening September 23. This marks the artist’s first institutional survey in the Arab world, spanning 20 years of work at the intersection of research and art-making. The exhibition underscores the Gallery’s role in shaping contemporary art dialogue in the region, presenting newly commissioned works and seminal projects exploring archives, architecture, memory, and regional histories.

The Digital Well-being Symposium, co-hosted by NYUAD and the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) in April, sparked national dialogue on children’s relationship with technology. As part of the collaboration, Yousef Alhammadi (Executive Director of Knowledge and Innovation, ECA) authored an op-ed in The National stressing the importance of raising children to be both tech-savvy and digitally healthy. His piece called for evidence-based frameworks and culturally grounded guidelines to support young children’s safe and balanced engagement with technology.

The Office of Research reported 32 new externally sponsored grants in AY 2024–2025 and expanded the Kawader Research Assistantship Program, supporting 33 fellows. Milestones included the incorporation of NYUAD’s first startup, Chatsign, an AI-driven accessibility tool for deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, and a Thumbay International Research Grant of AED 200,000 awarded to the Molecular and Cell Biology Core Technology Platform for cancer research. The office also delivered 892 training sessions, contributing to 107 resulting publications.

NYUAD students Fatima Alrebh, Heesung Tae, and Afomia Mengistu represented the University at the 12th Undergraduate Research and Innovation Competition (URIC), hosted by Abu Dhabi University and supported by H.E. Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence. Using synthetic biology, the team engineered a probiotic inspired by Abu Dhabi’s heat-resilient corals to protect reefs from bacterial stress and help combat coral bleaching. Their project, REEFORM, was awarded runner-up in the Biomedical Engineering category. 

Students Mariam Al Mazrouei, Fatima Alawlaqi, Amna Albahar, Aysha Alblooshi, and Meera Al Qubaisi won third place at the ADNOC–Bloomberg Trading Challenge 2025, competing against more than 400 students from across the UAE. After weeks of Bloomberg-led trainings, hands-on trading, and strategy development, the team advanced to the top five finalists and presented their investment case before industry experts at the ADGM Investment Academy. Guided by advisor Saba Najeeb (Instructor of Economics), the students were recognized for their confident, data-driven performance, showcasing their technical skill and collaborative resilience.

NYUAD’s Political Science program was ranked among the world’s top departments in a global study published in PS: Political Science & Politics (Cambridge University Press). The study assessed more than 5,600 faculty across 178 departments worldwide, using metrics such as citations, journal impact factors, and top publications. NYUAD ranked No. 1 in Asia, No. 6 for recent research impact, and No. 20 overall in total research impact, underscoring the global influence of its faculty scholarship.

Wole Soyinka (Arts Professor of Theater) has gained renewed international recognition through the translation and adoption of his book Myth, Literature and the African World in Brazil. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted the work as a pivotal contribution to literary scholarship, underscoring its role in shaping comparative studies between African and Latin American traditions. The book’s reception in Brazil reflects its enduring relevance in expanding cross-cultural dialogues and deepening global engagement with African intellectual thought.