He is an Emirati activist, author, collector, businessman, Founder and CEO of Barjeel Art Foundation.

He is also a journalist who writes about regional politics, social issues, and economics. He contributes opinion pieces to “Emarat Al Youm”, “New York Times”, “Financial Times”, “Foreign Policy”, “Open Democracy”, “The Independent”, “The Guardian”, and “Gulf News”.

Al Qassemi earned a bachelor's degree in international business administration from the American University of Paris in 1998, as well as a master's degree in global finance and banking from the European Business School in London, where he graduated with distinction in 2004.

He is active in youth empowerment and entrepreneurship, having previously served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Young Arab Leaders Foundation's UAE branch for 3 years.

Forbes Middle East magazine named him first on its list of the "100 Most Prominent Arabic Personalities on Twitter”. He also received the Sheikh Rashid Award for Academic Excellence in 2006 and the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority Award in 2012, and "Arabian Business" named him one of the "500 Most Powerful Arabs" in the same year.

In 2008, Al Qasimi began teaching at a number of local and international universities, such as the Technical College in Dubai, the MIT Media Lab, Brandeis University in the United States, the American University in Paris, Boston College, Georgetown University, Yale University, and Bard in Berlin. Furthermore, he recently began teaching a course on the politics of contemporary Middle Eastern art in the Department of International Studies of the American University of Sharjah's College of Arts and Sciences in the spring semester of 2024

A Syrian-Armenian writer who grew up in the UAE. 

Besides his efforts in fiction, he has worked as a journalist in several local publications and has taught creative writing at NYU in New York. 

He joined "The National" in 2019 as an Arts & Culture writer, and primarily covers visual arts and film.

A writer who was born and raised in the UAE. Her work explores how gender, urban spaces, and media operate in the Gulf. 

Her short story "Too Much Freedom" won the “Mudun” Prize 2022 by Barjeel Art Foundation and Rusted Radishes. 

She was the Co-Founder of Gulf Creative Collective, awarded the "Warehouse 421", through which she facilitated workshops. 

She hosts writing workshops with Sharjah Art Foundation, Bayt AlMamzar, and Art Jameel. She has a master’s degree in media studies from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and she is currently working on her debut novel.

Novelist

A writer, Literary Consultant, and Curator. She is the former Assistant Festival Director and Head of Programming for the Emirates Literature Foundation, where she was responsible for the curation and delivery of the Emirates LitFest, the Arab world's largest literary festival, as well as the programming for other Foundation initiatives, such as the Connecting Minds Book Club in partnership with Expo City Dubai.

Prior to working in cultural programming, Tamreez worked for a decade in international development, trade, and investment consulting with organisations such as OCO Global, the British Embassy in Dubai, Oxfam and the United Nations. 

She has a Joint Honours Degree in International Development and Political Science from McGill University and a master's degree in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford.