Research on preserving Nubian culture

Since 2022, Mazen has worked as a project manager for “Memories of Tahjeer”, a collaborative project with the Costen Institute at UCLA. His research focuses on “how we can take the rigorous documentation of Nubian culture—the history, language, and threatened heritage—and make it genuinely accessible to everyone, not just fellow scholars.”

The main challenge, as he describes it, is to develop intelligent and sustainable methods for digitizing and preserving historical texts and manuscripts related to Nubia. At the same time, he aims to explore how complex academic research can be translated into engaging and comprehensible formats for a broader audience.

Mazen is particularly interested in digital cultural preservation and in applying Digital Humanities methods to historical texts. Furthermore, he is “especially keen on exploring the ethical side of digital documentation and how we can use new digital tools to effectively preserve and catalogue these historical writings.”

“TCDH’s advanced expertise in Digital Humanities is exactly what I need to develop more sophisticated and academically sound frameworks for our documentation efforts,” he adds. Ultimately, he states, this collaboration contributes to ensuring that the preservation of Nubian culture meets the highest international standards, while also fostering networks for future research cooperation.

We wish Mazen a successful and insightful time with us at TCDH and look forward to interesting discussions with him.