Michael A. Toler has been the Archnet Content Manager since September 2012. He also served as Interim Program Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) from July 2018 to April 2020.
Michael has been involved in the digital humanities since the mid-1990s. From 2001-2010 he served as the Program Director for the Al Musharaka Initiative of the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education. Michael was responsible for the development of content for the Arab Culture and Civilization Online Resource and for coordinating inter-institutional, collaborative endeavors of faculty, librarians, and technologists using technology to enhance teaching and research on topics relating to Islam, the Middle East, and North Africa. Michael has contributed more than 3,500 images to Archnet, and creates most of the help videos and user guides.
He is particularly proud of collaborations with the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) and other institutions, including Wellesley College and the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress to bring online the glass negatives from TALIM's collection showing Tangier, Morocco, Algeria, Spain, and France in the period from roughly 1890 to 1930, and the nearly 70 hours of Moroccan music recorded in 1959 by Paul Bowles.
Michael began his teaching career in Morocco at the Faculté de Lettres, Université Chouaïb Doukkali (El Jadida, 1990-1992), the King Fahd School of Translation (Tangier, 1992-1995) and Al Akhawayn University in Morocco (1995-1996).
He subsequently received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a Certificate in Translation Studies from Binghamton University (SUNY), where he developed and taught Introduction to World Literature and Literature in Society. He also served as a graduate assistant in the Institute for Global Cultural Studies (IGCS) of Ali A. Mazrui, where he edited the IGCS Newsletter and other publications. He organized conferences on "Islam in Africa" and "Is Globalization a Dialogue of Civilizations."
Michael holds an MA and BA in English from New York University and Virginia Commonwealth University, respectively. He has published and lectured extensively on digital pedagogy and scholarship, as well as the literature, history, cinema, music, and cyberspace of the Maghreb, and the Middle East more widely.
Michael is Secretary of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM), and serves on the board or advisory groups of numerous academic societies and cultural institutions, including the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and the American Institute for Yemeni Studies.
(as of October 2020)
Related Archnet Resources:
Tangier Then and Now, exhibition 2016
Arab and Muslim Communities of Worcester, Massachusetts
A3: Archives of African Architectures
Jewish Communities in the Maghreb and Iberian Peninsula
Islam in Europe: Architecture of Muslim Communities
Timeline: Sharifian (Morocco) {from 1517}
Timeline: Marinids {1196-1465}
Timeline: Idrisid {791-974
Timeline: Hafsid {1229-1574}
Sources:
MIT Libraries Staff Page
Academia.edu
ORCHID
ResearchGate
Google Scholar
Brodeur, Jason, Morgan Daniels, Annie Johnson, Natsuko Nicholls, Sarah Pickle, and Elizabeth A. Waraksa A. Waraksa. National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education: An Assessment. CLIR Report. Council on Library & Information Resources, November 2016. https://perma.cc/KE9V-28CW.
Davis, D.A. "Milennial Teaching". Academe, (2003) v. 89, 1, pp. 19-22.
Millichap, N. & Toler, M. (2005). Online Resource Creation Catalyzes Collaboration. Educause Quarterly, 28(4), 57-59. https://er.educause.edu/~/media/files/articles/2005/10/eqm0549.pdf?la=en. Retrieved March 5, 2021. https://perma.cc/L8TJ-8TNR.
Toler, Michael A. 2005. “Extending the Campus: Al-Musharaka and Technology-Assisted Collaboration.” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 39 (2). Cambridge University Press: 169–74. doi:10.1017/S0026318400048100. https://perma.cc/R3MU-X9M7.
