Buffett Q&A: Hamza Haq on Municipal Policy in the Holy Cities of Iraq (International Senior Thesis Research Grantee, 2025)

For our third student profile of the Buffett Q&A series, we spoke with Hamza Haq, a recipient of the Roberta Buffett Institute's International Senior Thesis Research Award. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2025. 

Tell us about your senior thesis. What was the focus of your project, and how did the Institute’s International Senior Thesis Research Award allow you to further your research? 

 I received this grant from the Roberta Buffett Institute to study the security policies of holy cities in Iraq. With the support of the grant, I travelled there to gain a better understanding of how the security standards and practices surrounding the shrines inform broader municipal policy and governance.

What are these shrines, and how do the cultural practices and security measures surrounding them influence the governance of the cities where they are located? 

In Iraq, there are several holy shrines that are very important to Shia Muslims because that is where our saints were buried. What stood out to me when researching this topic was the fact that these cities have their own unique standards of governance, security, and municipal policy that are directly shaped by the presence of the shrines. This is true both at the site of the shrines, but also across the city as well.  

What sort of research questions did this phenomenon raise for you, and why was it important that you were able to carry out some of this work on-site in Iraq?

I wanted to understand more about how these policies worked, so I decided I needed to interview different groups of people who spent time at these shrines, such as security guards, pilgrims, and religious leaders. I was hoping to learn more about how they understood their relationship with the shrine, thinking this might reveal more about its role in the city, the management of border sovereignty, and government collaboration in the maintenance of these sites.

Tell us more about what it was like to conduct these interviews. Why was the interview aspect an important part of your project? 

The interviews were very important to me because one of my priorities in pursuing this project was to really incorporate the views of Iraqi people themselves into the narrative. I felt that the only way that I could do them justice was being in Iraq with them and getting their thoughts and views directly.

Were there any memorable moments or experiences that stood out from your trip? 

Yes! In one of the interviews I did, they had a translator. After that interview, I met up with him and we walked through Karbala. In this city they usually have gatherings where people do something called Latmiya or Matam. You basically hit your chest to the beat of a dirge, an elegy that is being recited. Now, there’s this Latmiyat that I really like, and his name is Mir Hassan Mir. I walked up to this gathering, and it was him performing! It was like seeing a celebrity because I'd grown up listening to him, and then I was seeing him with my two eyes. It felt like meeting Ariana Grande but the Iraqi version.

What would you say are your main takeaways from this experience? 

 This opportunity showed me how amazing it is to do on-the-ground research. I met so many people while I was there, so many professors who were actually interested in building upon my study. We talked about creating some sort of joint study between the US and Iraq at some point in the future. It's definitely opened up a ton of opportunities for me.