As classes shift online and people begin to telework, the CAORC network of 25 Overseas Research Centers has a wealth of online resources available, including free teaching modules, online lectures, digital archives, and podcasts to name a few. The list below highlights some of their resources. Please explore the centers websites for more information here.
If you’re new to the network, check out this introductory video.
The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR)
AIAR has an online library catalog and a YouTube channel. The library collection contains more than 35,000 volumes, including 450 journal titles relating to all aspects of ancient Near Eastern studies, with a concentration in Levantine archaeology and Semitic languages and literature.
The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS)
AIFIS has a YouTube channel featuring videos of fellows and events. Check out this video of Jenny Zhang, AIFIS-CAORC Fellow from the University of California, Berkeley, sharing her experience being a fellow or this conference on language organized by AIFIS and Atma Jaya University in Indonesia. This particular session is about sign language and the need for better access to learning with sign language.
American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) Check out The Maghrib Podcasts, which is actively posting new episodes. AIMS comprises three overseas research centers, Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT), Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), and the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM), which all contribute to this podcast.
The CEMAT website highlights all of their programs and partnerships, including the CEMAT/CEMA project, Supporting Critical Research and Strengthening Scholarly Capacity in Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and highlights state-of-the art research by North African scholars.
TALIM has free lesson plans for preparing a trip to the Legation museum in Tangier. Also, check out TALIM's digitized glass negatives collection from the early 20th century or the Paul Bowles recordings of traditional Moroccan music through Archnet. Paul Bowles was an American writer and composer, who traversed the country in a VW Beetle, with an Ampex reel to reel recorder, to record approximately 60 hours of traditional folk, art, and popular music in 1959.
The American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS)
AISLS is commissioning several teaching units for use by community college teachers. The culture, history and society of Sri Lanka provide an excellent resource for case studies that illustrate broader themes relevant to many community college courses. These units may also be used by teachers of introductory courses at four-year colleges. Check them out here.
The American Institute for Yemeni Studies (AIYS)
Yemen is not only one of the worst conflict-related, humanitarian disasters in the world, it is also the oldest civilization on the Arabian Peninsula, going back even before the Queen of Sheba and the pre-Islamic dam of Marib. The AIYS website has a variety of resources, including a list of online resources on Yemen, and a major resource guide for Yemeni studies that covers online bibliographic resources, and how to find PDFs of books on Yemen online. If you would like to contact an expert on an issue in Yemen, there is an Expert Guide. Articles on Yemeni culture and history can be found in Yemen Update.
For information about Yemeni culture, check out the AIYS blog. There is also a Facebook group with recent updates on the crisis.
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)
The ACMS Speaker Series 2019 Playlist features public video lectures related to Mongolia by scholars in diverse fields, ranging from politics, art, and military history, to public health, archaeology, and architecture. The presentation slides have been inter-stitched in full resolution during the video as a learning aid.
The ACMS Mongolia YouTube Channel has videos of scholar interviews and program reports. More lectures from the Speaker Series 2020 will be available soon, so please stay tuned!
The Inner Asia Digital Archive currently has two major collections: Select Mongolian laws and regulations 1917-1940 and Muslim minorities in Inner Asia lecture series. Developed with the aim of providing scholars access to unique research materials and primary sources of information in cooperation with other local libraries.
The Tod Nomin Gerel Collection has 140 rare digitized texts of Oirat Mongols who held the Zunghar State in the West of Mongolia from 15th to 18th century. Most of these records were written in Todo bichig, and a small portion is in Tibetan. The records mainly comprise of Buddhist scriptures, folk tales, astrological manuals and myriad other teachings.
American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR)
The ACOR Photo Archive has over 26,000 online images of sites, landscapes, people, and activities from Jordan and other countries. Digitized over the past four years, this important new resource is making it easier to find images of sites in ever changing landscapes.
ACOR’s YouTube Channel features many past lectures held at ACOR, ranging from recent discoveries at the site of Pella in Jordan by Stephen Bourke, the importance of recording Rock Art in Wadi Rum by Kaelin Groom to contemporary topics including street art (Aseel Sawalha) and digital media (Geoffrey Hughes).
ACOR Newsletters have feature articles focusing on archaeology and cultural heritage, and short reports on ACOR’s activities. The ACOR Newsletters, which are published twice a year, are available for free download on the ACOR website, and go back to 1989.
The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE)
The ARCE online 'Resources' library features articles and videos about Egyptian history and the research initiatives being undertaken through American and Egyptian partnerships.
Check out the new ARCExMaydan Essay Roundtable and Podcast series, inspired and resulting from ARCE's Symposium on Egyptian Popular Culture: Produce, Consume, Conserve.
The Americas Research Network (ARENET)
The Americas Research Network hosts several online exhibits about textile production and techniques as well as one of their recent projects that explores craftivism with Mexican indigenous women using embroidery to call for human rights. Check out Textiles of the North American Southwest / Textiles del suroeste norteamericano and Women Embroidering their Rights / Bordando sus derechos
If you are interested in languages, check out the COLING project that brings together scholars, activists, and native speakers to promote the preservation of Indigenous and minoritized languages around the world. The Americas Research Network is a partner organization of the COLING Project and works with fellows and projects focused on Indigenous languages in the Americas. Explore the COLNG webpage to find galleries of photos, videos, and scholarly resources.
For researchers heading to Mexico in the future, check out Linda Arnold's Finding Aids. It includes catalogues for major archives in Mexico City as well as archives in Puebla, Guanajuato, and Oaxaca.
The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC)
ARISC has free online curricular modules. The modules are available to be used as scholarly vignettes on Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia to enhance instruction and to give students an opportunity to learn more about a fascinating yet often ignored region of the world. Topics covered include architecture, economics, history, migration, and politics, among others. The modules are separated into different general categories and include text, slides, and links for further reading. Full videos from the original conference presentations are also available here.
ARISC also has free videos from conferences and symposia available as well. Check out the "Caucasus Connections" Conference and the "Education in the South Caucasus" Symposium.
The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)
ARIT ‘s Istanbul branch has made many of its unique library and archival sources available online. Its digital collections primarily comprise publications and administrative records that belonged to the former Istanbul headquarters of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), which were inherited by ARIT in 2010. The ABCFM, one of the most active US-based international missionary organizations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, pursued education, health, and publishing work in Turkey between 1820 and c. 1960, and its operations continued under the auspices of the mission program of the United Church of Christ until 2010, when the UCC finally closed the old Board office in Istanbul. ARIT’s online library includes an extensive collection of ABCFM-related items.
ARIT’s online American Board archive, which offers a broad assortment of administrative records (reports, correspondence, financial documents, photographs, etc.) is hosted on the website of Istanbul’s SALT Research Center.
Additionally, the ARIT Turkish Studies resource page covers a variety of resources of ARIT member and affiliated institutions. This includes resources from K-16 curriculum to research databases and podcasts.
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA)
The American School Video Archive is a database of ASCSA lecture series. Watch lectures from leading scholars of the ancient world, modern Greece, translation, art history, and more.
With the Agora App you can browse the site's excavation history digitally through the Agora Notebooks app created by Bruce Hartzler! The notebooks contain photographs, drawings, and original field notes, making it possible to recover the archaeological context of every object found.
The ASCSA publications journal, Hesperia is available on JSTOR for subscribers.
The Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI)
CAARI hosts Digital Cobham, which is an online bibliography of material about Cyprus published before 1910 based on Claude Delaval Cobham’s pioneering bibliographic scholarship. It lists over 2000 fully searchable bibliographic entries for books and articles that contain information about Cyprus. Basic information is provided for each entry including the title, authors, publisher, publication location, year published and a short physical description. Most entries provide a link to a digital copy of the work available for immediate reading as well as links to catalog entries in major libraries.
The Center for Khmer Studies (CKS)
The CKS Online Catalog gives scholars, researchers, and fellows the ability to search and explore the CKS library collections, which include approximately 16,000 items!
CKS also has a YouTube channel, which features information on programs and highlights the work of their fellows. More videos are currently in the works so stay tuned!
West African Research Association (WARA) / West African Research Center (WARC)
Check out the African Language Materials Archive, which is a collection of rich and varied print, audio, and video materials in 20 African languages.
Diversity and Tolerance in the Islam of West Africa is a permanently available, open-access digital archive of resources on Islamic communities in Senegal and Ghana, for use by teachers and researchers.
The WARA YouTube channel features video footage of Boston University and WARA sponsored talks on religion and various other topics related to West Africa. The channel also has video footage of West African Muslim Contributions to US Culture and Society, a series of symposia organized by WARA along with Kent State University, Cuyahoga Community College, Howard University, and Montgomery College.