NEWS
“Gold Narrative Award” Selects Dr. Dheya Abdullah Al-Kaabi for Membership in its Higher Committee
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Mansoor Alwanni)
07 January 2024
The “Gold Narrative Award,” launched by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Center under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region, selected Dr. Dheya Abdullah Al Kaabi, Head of the Department of Arabic Language and Islamic Studies at the University of Bahrain, for membership in the Higher Committee of the Award in its 1st session.
Dr. Fuad Mohammed Al-Ansari, President of the University of Bahrain, congratulated Dr. Al Kaabi on her selection to membership in the Higher Committee of the “Gold Narrative Award,” in its 1st session.
Dr. Al Ansari stressed the importance of the academic and social contributions of the Higher Committee at the local and regional levels in supporting the achievement of sustainable development goals. Dr. Al Ansari also praised the Award launched by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Center under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region, Abu Dhabi. He noted that it is one of the most important awards concerned with folklore and narrative at the level of the Arab world.
The Golden Narrative Award aims to attract attention to folklore and narrative, as they are closely connected to the Arab conscience, and honor distinguished narrative writings, narrators of biographies, literature, and popular narratives locally and in the Arab world. It seeks to support distinguished works focusing on Emirati narrative in all its aspects, in terms of creativity, study, and analysis, and to introduce its authors to the public audience.
The Award also aims to shed light on modern narrative works, discover new talents in this art, and protect the arts of folklore and narrative, to enhance generational identity, through introducing the different generations to these creative writings. It also focuses on visual narratives that documents life in the United Arab Emirates and the Arab world, through the cinematic photography.
Dr. Al Kaabi attended the Gold Narrative Award ceremony, organized annually in Abu Dhabi, through which achievements in the Arabic language in the field of storytelling are honored, and narration is celebrated in its Arab and international dimensions, through the six categories of the Award that include the Short Stories Award for unpublished work, the Short Story Anthology Award of published stories, the Popular Narrative Award, Narrator and Biographer Award, the Illustrated Story Award, and Emirati Storytelling Award.
It is worth noting that Dr. Al Kaabi has literary and critical contributions and distinguished narrative productions, including the book “Bahraini Folktales: A Thousand and One Tales,” which is a huge voluminous book, in which Dr. Al-Kaabi supervised one hundred male and female students from the University of Bahrain, over a period of ten years. The project represents the largest collection of folktales completed so far in the Arab world, and the first comprehensive field survey of Bahraini folktales as narrated by Bahraini people. The said project was carried out in partnership between the University of Bahrain and International Organization for Folk Art (IOV). The book was printed by the Arab Institute for Research & Publishing, and Popular Culture Foundation for Studies, Research and Publishing in 2018.
