Iraq Center DARCI (Documentation and Research Center Iraq)
Tasks
Founded in 2009, this research center within the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) of the University of Marburg will maintain a specialized library which strives for comprehensiveness and a documentation center which archives and evaluates news, historical items and artefacts of all kinds. It will be unique in the Federal Republic of Germany and will thereby serve as a magnet for national and international researchers. A broad circle of interested parties is to receive access to the information in this database.
Moreover, the Iraq Center is intended to impart and convey regional expertise. For this purpose, existing networks and partnerships will be utilized and further expanded. Joint research with institutions in Iraq will be mutually beneficial.
Due to the turbulent situation in Iraq, there is a shortage of specialists with knowledge of the current situation on the ground; there will be a great demand for such specialists in the future, after the expected stabilization of the country. New syllabi and teaching concepts suitable for their training are under development.
The Center is under the direction of the Professor of Middle Eastern Political Science, integrates the additional professors of the CNMS (Arabic Studies, Iranian Studies, Islamic Studies, Middle Eastern Economics, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Semitic Studies) and, beyond that, involves interested university institutes and departments (Peace and Conflict Studies, Geography, Political Science, Economics, and others). With this common platform, supported by several fields of research and institutions, a new politically and economically relevant framework with media impact is being created; it offers outstanding conditions for innovative research and interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching.
