International Symposium: Kurdish Archives: Past, Present, Future

The International symposium ‘Kurdish Archives: Past, Present, Future’ took place on 12-13 June 2023 at the University of Silemani, Kurdistan. The symposium was jointly organized and funded by the University of Exeter, University of Sulaimani, and the Kurdish Heritage Institute (KHI). Participants were the Zheen Centre for Archive and Research, Kurdistan Documentation Centre, and Kurdish archival centres and organizations from Iran (Khorasan Razavi Cultural Heritage), Turkey (Mesopotamia Foundation and Kurdish Institute-Istanbul), and Rojava (Saziya Zimane Kurdi), as well as academics from the University of Turin, the University of Exeter, and Sulaimani University. Over 100 people attended the conference including Kurdish academics, students, independent archivists, and archive professionals who contributed to the discussions. Visits to the Kurdish Heritage Institute, Zheen, and Kurdistan Documentation Centre were arranged for the delegates on 12 June 2023 providing opportunities to learn about each institution’s collections, achievements, and challenges, and to discuss projects and collaboration. 

Dr Farangis Ghaderi, the principal organiser of the symposium said: “Our vision was to bring together dispersed Kurdish archive centres and to provide a space to reflect on the developments of archives of Kurdistan, challenges of preserving endangered archives, opportunities and challenges of digitisation, and to encourage collaboration. It was a huge success and we hope to build on this momentum for further collaboration.”

Dr Mikail Bulbil, director of the Mesopotamia Foundation in Turkey said: “There are many archival centres that unfortunately we were not aware of. Thanks to this symposium we got to know each other and made contacts. Again, thanks to this opportunity the Kurdish Heritage Institute and Mesopotamia Foundation have agreed to sign an agreement of collaboration.  This was very important to us.”

The symposium marked a significant turning point in the development of Kurdish archives and generated intense media interest and was reported on several Kurdish TV channels including Gali Kurdistan and KurdSat who also conducted extensive interviews with Dr Farangis Ghaderi on the conference as well as the Kurdish Digital Archive project at the University of Exeter.

The Kurdish Digital Archive is a part of the DAME (Digital Archive of the Middle East) project, hosted at the University of Exeter. Its aim is not only to digitise and make accessible key Kurdish materials from the University’s own archival collections, but also to collaborate with other Kurdish archives and institutions in fostering joint research, the sharing of archival resources and the preservation and dissemination of Kurdish cultural heritage.

A short video of conference footage can be viewed on the University of Sulamaini page: https://fb.watch/lQ-wBhBHO4/