Under the patronage of Sheika Bodour Bint Sultan Al Qasimi, President and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of AUS, the American University of Sharjah (AUS) has signed an agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to establish the UNESCO Chair in Arabic Language, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Heritage at AUS. This agreement will make AUS the only university worldwide to host a UNESCO Chair of its genre. The chair will promote cultural preservation by utilising high-tech solutions to expand access to Arabic language and heritage, while simultaneously enhancing scholarship, skills development, and community participation.
“The memory of a region, its ideas, its poetry, and its everyday voices are all carried by Arabic,” stated Dr. Tod A. Laursen, Chancellor of AUS. “Heritage becomes more difficult to access and more likely to be lost when archives are not digitised or dialects are not documented.” This UNESCO Chair will combine rigorous Arabic scholarship with responsible AI and digital humanities to preserve, curate, and open new pathways to Arab cultural and linguistic heritage at scale. It will also train individuals who can continue this work. It is indicative of the Emirate of Sharjah’s enduring dedication to culture and knowledge, and it enables AUS to provide valuable research, accessible digital resources, and regional capacity that benefit communities throughout the Arab world and beyond.
The chair’s objectives include the preservation and accessibility of Arab cultural and linguistic heritage through the collection, digitisation, and curation of artefacts, including endangered Arabic dialects, using innovative digital tools and multilingual metadata standards.
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