Three Ithaca College students and a professor will travel tomorrow to the small Arab emirate of Qatar to conduct research on children’s television programs in the Middle East.

Kati Lustyik, assistant professor of television-radio, senior Daniel Haack and juniors Joe Bagliere and Tucker Ives will travel to Doha, the capital and largest city of Qatar, during spring break.

They will be researching the production process of children’s programming in the country and will visit Al-Jazeera, the largest Arab-based broadcast network in the world.

After initially working on a research paper on the topic, the students teamed up with Lustyik, who specializes in transnational children’s television networks.

“What we found was there was very little research on Al-Jazeera’s children’s channel, so we got in our heads that we would provide that research to the academic world,” Haack said.

While in Qatar, the group will also talk with faculty from Northwestern University and Georgetown and interview children of Cornell professors who live in the country for a documentary they may produce after their trip.

Senior Carley Willsie, junior Susannah Faulkner and sophomore Daniel Sitts were also involved in the planning and execution of the research trip.

Funding for the trip came from offices and departments on campus such as the Office of the Provost.

Lustyik said she is more excited than nervous about being immersed in the culture.

“In a way I am nervous because I haven’t been there, and it will be my responsibility to represent the college,” she said. “As far as the region goes, everybody I have talked to has said Qatar seems to be a very safe place.”