The workshop will examine the ways in which gender is implicated in the display and production (and (re)production) of cultural representations and in the establishment and reflection of personal and national identities. The workshop is particularly interested in exploring the connections and disconnections between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ modes of identity production. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, workshop participants will exchange knowledge and challenge assumptions about gender and identity in the Gulf. The workshop will offer new perspectives on how gender and identity are culturally constructed and represented in the region. It will seek to identify the tensions and connections that have emerged within gender discourses in the Gulf. By framing these discourses within the wider debates around cultural production and education, the workshop will introduce and interrogate the intersections between gender, representation, and identity and how this relates to the economic, political, and social realities of the Gulf region. The workshop themes will be examined through two general frames of inquiry: Cultural Constructions and Cultural Representations. Cultural Constructions Under the theme of Cultural Constructions, workshop participants will examine the ways in which individual and national identities are shaped and produced. Recognizing that issues of gender are an important determinant in Gulf societies, contributions that consider gender as a factor within identity construction are particularly welcome. The theme of Cultural Constructions of identity can include both theory and practice-based research and can be approached from a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to: the visual and performing arts, heritage studies, education, gender studies, history, anthropology, sociology and political sciences. By situating identity as a culturally constructed, rather than innate, concept the workshop seeks to interrogate both the act of that construction and its public and private reception from a variety of perspectives. 3 Cultural Representations Once constructions of personal and national identity have been explored, the workshop will turn to a discussion of how these identities are represented through the broadly conceived lens of ‘culture’. Culture can be understood as a broad set of ‘common beliefs’ that connect (and disconnect) people. From common beliefs emerge social practices, which are “imbued with meaning” (Hall, 2013). Papers in this section of the workshop will raise and address issues of public representation of identity in settings as varied as the museum, the city, and the Internet. As with Cultural Constructions, in the Cultural Representations section we are again particularly interested in the intersection of gender and identity in establishing modes of representation. While this section suggests affinities with the study of visual culture, we have conceptualized the notion of representation more broadly and seek to engage scholars who approach the topic from other directions such as media studies, performing arts, literature, politics, anthropology and sociology, among others.