Additional academic recognition for our work: Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) resulting in a vacancy for academic database entry

We are very pleased that we have been able to obtain an agreement to store our own reports with DANS which was published in their April 4 project list:

Description and classification of content of Arab-West Report in preparation for depositing in the archive of DANS (Stichting Arab-West Foundation). Preparation for data storage of thousands of articles and reports that have been deposited in the self-built Arab-West Report, resulting from 20 years of research and documentation of Dutch sociologist Cornelis Hulsman and his co-workers and students on pluralism in Egypt.

This agreement is a major recognition of the academic value of the data Arab-West Report has produced throughout the years. This agreement was due to the support of Prof. Dr. Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Director of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, Radboud University of Nijmegen and Prof. Dr. Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Professor of Muslim-Christian relations at the Free University, Amsterdam. This academic support is building on the value of our data that have been long recognized by the scholars who have used our work for dissertations, books and articles. But the agreement with DANS has added value since it provides the electronic data storage of the combined Dutch universities and academic institutions. Storage of data with DANS makes our data more widely accessible for academic use, not only for Dutch academics but academics worldwide.

But this agreement has come with a price. In 2015, we have worked with Dutch company New Spiritz to upgrade our database after it had first been deliberately destroyed in June 2013, and in December 2014 was hit by a server failure.  The work of New Spiritz was completed in December 2015, and following this we worked with IT developers Alex Strooisma and Maged Eladawy to improve the data structure of our database. This was much needed since data had to be moved from text fields to database fields. This needed programming and subsequently, data entry in the newly created fields. It also requires the data be properly categorized to facilitate search. This applies to our own reports that are prepared for hosting by DANS but also the thousands of summary translations from Arabic media. This is a substantial amount of work for the around 40.000 articles and reports that we have now online.

We need, therefore, asap a person who can help us with this data entry: 

He/she needs to have a good general knowledge of the subjects we cover; Muslim-Christian relations in contemporary Egypt because only then would he/she be able to classify the data in the right fields. The work also entails a lot of reading of interesting material and great attention to details. Most data are in English but knowing (some) Arabic is definitely an advantage, since it would then be possible to learn the IJMES transliteration system of Arabic names, which will help with placing transliterated Arabic names in the database. This is a paid position for six months. For more information about this position please click here.

If you think you are qualified please write me.

If you do not apply you could still forward this message to anyone you think might be interested.

It is definitely an ideal position for a student in Middle Eastern studies who wants to learn a lot and a the same time get some income.

Cairo, April 14, 2016

Cornelis Hulsman,

Editor-in-chief of Arab-West Report

[email protected]