Arabic Cultural Content Curator Intern

Position title: Arabic Cultural Content Curator

Organization: ASU SolarSPELL Initiative (Solar Powered Educational Learning Library)

Location: Tempe and/or Remote

Type of internship: For credit or non-paid; approximately 10 hours per week

Application deadline: November 12, 2023; applications will continue to be accepted and reviewed every week until the position is filled.

Start date: January 8th, 2023

Description: 

SolarSPELL is seeking interns to curate regionally-relevant, open access, educational content for our Arabic library collection that is currently used in the Autonomous Region of North and East Syria (AANES). Proficiency in Arabic, Kurdish, OR Syriac is required.

SolarSPELL is a global educational initiative at Arizona State University that combines solar-powered technology, relevant content, and local capacity building. We work to build internet-ready skills and improve educational opportunities around the world. Our offline digital library is designed to bring educational content to resource-constrained locations that may lack electricity, internet connectivity, and/or traditional libraries. The SolarSPELL library emits an offline WiFi hotspot, to which any WiFi capable device (smartphones, tablets, laptops) can connect and freely, and safely, surf thousands of resources that are carefully curated and continually improved to meet local information needs. 

The Arabic collection began with a Middle East library for a pilot in Northeast Syria and currently includes 1500 resources. Interns in this role will oversee the expansion and further development of the Arabic collection for use in Northeast Syria and beyond. This is the first library to curate local content in three languages: Arabic, Kurdish, and Syriac. 

More information on SolarSPELL can be found at solarspell.org.

This internship offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to improving the quality of educational information available to students and teachers around the world, whose schools may lack internet connectivity, electricity, and/or traditional libraries. Your contributions will be brought to the field and used by teachers and students, potentially within months of your internship! 

Interns will be expected to attend an orientation session and content curation training workshop at the beginning of the semester, and weekly virtual check-ins throughout the semester. Ideal candidates will be detail-oriented, proactive in their content curation tasks, and have a desire to work for a department that serves communities from all over the world.

Main tasks will include:

• Curate locally-relevant content to the region
• Curate resources related to local creative arts, environment, social studies, and other topics
• Curate content supporting the curriculum of in-country partners

Other general tasks may include:

• Feedback on current user interface and library organization/navigation 
• Metadata work, including tagging and organizing of content within the library database 
• General research on regions and countries of implementation
• Checking content websites we regularly curate from for any new content 

How to apply: If you are interested in applying for this position, please submit a resume and cover letter to Cassie Barrett at cbarre38@asu.edu. All documents should be in PDF format and follow the naming style of [LastName_FirstName_DesiredPosition]