Doors, Doors, Doors!

We usually never pay attention to the way a door is decorated. When focusing on family and staff members in NU-Q (Northwestern University in Qatar), we can get a closer picture of their identity simply by observing their doors. This may sound funny, but we can get a wide range of information about that person just by looking at their office door and its surroundings. Such information includes their role, their achieved status, and their ascribed status.



What do those doors symbolize? After going around looking at the faculty and staff offices of NU-Q, we can see some sort of an emerging social structure. Since the faculty offices are dispersed around the CMU-Q Carnegie Mellon University arc, there is a difference between the first half and the second half of the arc.



One of the halves seems to be livelier than the other, having images of cartoons and posters on doors. Both halves represent professionalism, with articles posted on their doors. It is evident that quotes appear on more than one office. Some professors choose to have their office hours printed on a sheet of paper outside their doors.




As for name tags, each office has one placed on the right hand side of the door. Name tags symbolize achieved status, occupation, and different titles. The cartoons on doors symbolize humor, or can also highlight the professor’s hobby. One of the cartoons is cut out of a newspaper and it is about academia and academic jokes. This indicates his role, which is an academic, and other academics will get this humor. It is a status indicator.




When looking at the other side of the arc, we can see an interesting contrast between both sides. Most of the faculties on this side are journalism professors. One has an evil-eye door hanger. This highlights which culture they are coming from, believing in the evil-eye myth. Student works and photos are also evident, and along with that there are old flyers that have not been removed. In addition, some professors have book covers, ones that they have published, printed and stuck on the doors, also highlighting their social status.



An interesting observation is the use of a Northwestern print doormat. This is only apparent in the offices of both deans, showing that they hold a higher position in the professional hierarchy than the other faculty and staff members, highlighting their status.



Most of the office doors are open with the lights on. This tells a lot, that they are usually present in office and ready for anyone. When doors are closed with the lights on, the professors are usually busy doing something, or they can have their doors closed to avoid noise.



A number of professors have very little information on their doors, if any. They are careful as to what information they expose. In organizations such as Qatar Foundation, they do not give a list of what you can or cannot put on the door. Therefore, they have a free choice.



The student services section is much more vibrant and has a lot going on. Most offices have whiteboards on their doors, as well as paper clocks to indicate what time they will be back in office. Those are there so that students can find them at all times. One difference is a lot of the student affairs staff do not have office hours, which is why they have whiteboards and clocks. Those whiteboards show status and role of the staff member. The academics adviser has the busiest office, being very colorful. To me, I think that her office is the liveliest. She also has this coexist sign that symbolizes diversity and tolerance.






Therefore, we can say that even an office door can give off a lot of information about the person, representing their role and status in society.