Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lisa Roberts, launches the Arab World Documentation Unit in IAIS

On 26 October, the Arab World Documentation Unit (AWDU) was relaunches at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

AWDU is a specialist Middle East collection comprising of vast documentary material (statistical data, country reports, official publications, political opposition newsletters) from the Arab Gulf States and archival, historical, sociological, cultural and literary material from the wider Middle East from the mid-18th century onwards, including the Bombay Diaries and Uri Davis collection.

Previously housed in the main library at the University of Exeter, AWDU has relocated to a new state-of-the-art archive space in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, facilitating greater access to its collections as well as landmark digitisation of its material under the DAME (Digital Archives of the Middle East) project, a joint-venture between IAIS and the University of Tsinghua.